Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Vascular Microenvironment and Systemic Sclerosis

The role of the vascular microenvironment in the pathogenesis Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) is appreciated clinically as Raynaud's syndrome with capillary nail bed change. This manifestation of vasculopathy is used diagnostically in both limited and diffuse cutaneous subsets of SSc, and is thought to precede fibrosis. The degree of subsequent fibrosis may also be determined by the vascular microenvironment. This paper describes why the vascular microenvironment might determine the degree of end-organ damage that occurs in SSc, with a focus on vascular cell senescence, endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) including multipotential mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), pericytes, and angiogenic monocytes. An explanation of the role of EPC, pericytes, and angiogenic monocytes is important to an understanding of SSc pathogenesis. An evolving understanding of the vascular microenvironment in SSc may allow directed treatment.
Microphase Ordering in Melts of Randomly Grafted Copolymers

Using optical birefringence, small-angle neutron scattering, and field-theoretic methods, we study the effects of frustrating quenched randomness and connectivity on microphase ordering in copolymer melts. Our results show that randomly grafted copolymers are good model systems to examine these effects, and we find that these materials exhibit behavior different from that observed heretofore for other types of molten polymers. [S0031-9007(99)08822-5] PACS numbers: 61.41. + e, 61.12. Ex Mixtures of incompatible homopolymers form distinct macroscopic phases when cooled below a certain temperature. In contrast, due to frustration presented by chain connectivity, molten copolymers comprised of incompatible segments form ordered microphases when cooled below the phase transition temperature. The physics of microphase ordering in copolymers with ordered sequence distributions (e.g., diblock copolymers) has been studied extensively, e.g., [1], and many exotic microstruc
Optimization of memory system in real-time embedded systems

Code space is a critical issue in designing of software for real-time embedded systems. The memory system often determines a great deal about the behavior of an embedded system: performance, power, and manufacturing cost. A great many software techniques have been developed to optimize software to improve these characteristics. Since much of the code for embedded systems is compiled once and then burned into ROM, the software designer will often tolerate much longer compile times in the hope of reducing the size of the compiled code. This paper surveys techniques for optimizing memory behavior of real-time embedded software.
Vortex ring pinchoff in the presence of simultaneously initiated uniform background co-flow

Vortex rings were formed with a piston-cylinder mechanism in the presence of uniform background co-flow supplied through a shroud surrounding the cylinder. The jet and co-flow were started simultaneously. Ratios of the co-flow to jet velocity (Rv) in the range 0–1 were considered. The formation number (F) as a function of Rv was determined using the procedure of Gharib et al. [J. Fluid Mech. 360, 121 (1998)] and a generalized definition of formation time. The results show a sharp decrease in F as Rv increases from 0.5–0.75, suggesting possible performance limitations for pulsed-jet propulsion.
Period Clustering of the Anomalous X-Ray Pulsars and Magnetic Field Decay in Magnetars

We confront theoretical models for the rotational, magnetic, and thermal evolution of an ultramagnetized neutron star, or magnetar, with available data on the anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs). We argue that, if the AXPs are interpreted as magnetars, their clustering of spin periods between 6 and 12 s (observed at present in this class of objects), their period derivatives, their thermal X-ray luminosities, and the association of two of them with young supernova remnants can only be understood globally if the magnetic field in magnetars decays significantly on a timescale of the order of 104 yr.
An Artemisinin Derivative of Praziquantel as an Orally Active Antischistosomal Agent

Background Schistosomiasis is a major health problem in tropical and sub-tropical areas caused by species of trematode belonging to the genus Schistosoma. The treatment and control of this disease has been relying on the use of a single drug praziquantel. However, the drug resistance concern urged the development of new drugs against schistosoma. Here, we report our systematic biological evaluation of DW-3-15, a new lead compound developed based on our conjugation design rationale as an effective anti-schistosomal agent. Methodology/Principal Findings The antischistosomal activity of DW-3-15 was systematically evaluated in S. japonicum infected mouse model for its stage-sensitivity and dose response. The results revealed that DW-3-15 exhibited 60–85% worm reduction rate against different development stage of worm. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation indicated that DW-3-15 may damage to the tegument of male schistosomes. Conclusions/Significance Our results demonstrated that DW-3-15 showed potent anti-schistosomal activities in vivo. The results strongly support our conjugation design strategy of artemisinin analogs and further development of DW-3-15 as a new lead compound as anti-schistosomal agent.
The Workshop on Computational Dialectics

The 1994 Workshop on Computational Dialectics was held during the 1994 National Conference on AI. At issue were the following ideas: (1) dialectic has something to do with computation, (2) AI has something new to contribute to the understanding of dialectic, and (3) dialectic approaches to longstanding AI problems permit new progress. This article outlines the significant research presented at the conference.
A Roadmap to Extending GIS For Public Utility Companies

Emergency management, leakage handling and maintenance of distribution networks are among the most essential tasks a public utility faces. Geo information systems are frequently employed to document the state of the network and the location of leaks and line failures. We propose to make the transition from the essentially documentary character of existing systems to a decision support perspective. This will give additional use and utility to information already stored and provide for more ef(cid:2)cient decision making.
A low power 1-V 10-bit 40-MS/s pipeline ADC

A low power 10 bit, 40 MS/s pipeline analog to digital converter is presented. A number of low-power techniques are proposed in various levels of abstraction. In circuit level, a low power class A/AB opamp with direct common-mode-feedback circuit (CMFB) is proposed which significantly reduces power in the opamps. In backend design, optimal series capacitors are layed out to break the deadlock between the mismatch and loading effect of the first stage capacitors. A customized software tool is developed based on the proposed opamp and architecture which provides optimum stage scaling factors, tail current and opamp transistor sizes. Simulations in 0.13um CMOS technology show that the ADC achieves 56.04dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNDR), 9.02 effective numbers of bits (ENOB) and INL/DNL of less than 1 LSB, while consuming only 3.9 mW from a 1-V power supply. The Figure-of-Merit (FOM) value is less than 0.19 pJ/Conversion.
Physiology of Insect Rhythms: I. Circadian Organization of the Endocrine Events Underlying the Moulting Cycle of Larval Tobacco Hornworms

1. The larval ecdyses of the tobacco hornworm, Manduca , and of the oak silkmoth, Antheraea , occur during specific times of the day. These times are instar-specific and species-specific and depend upon the photoperiod and temperature conditions. 2. The larval ocelli are not required for the synchronization of larval ecdysis with the photoperiod. 3. The synchrony observed in larval ecdysis does not arise from a gating of the ecdysial event per se by a biological clock. Rather, it is an outcome of the gating of the endocrine events which initiate the moulting process. 4. Application of neck ligatures to fourth-instar hornworm larvae at various times of day showed that prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) secretion occurred only during a gate in the early to middle portion of the night. The times of the gates for second- and third-instar larvae were similar. 5. When neck ligatures were applied to fourth-instar larvae within the first 1-5 h after PTTH release, the larvae underwent precocious metamorphosis rather than Moulting to the Fifth Instar. A Consideration of the Number of Larval-Pupal Intermetiates Produced Indicated that with in Span of 15 min Sufficiant JH is Liberatd from the Corpora Allata to Ensure Full Larval Differentiation. 6. Larval abdomens which were isolated during the period from 3 to 6 h after PTTH release underwent a mosaic larval moult-i.e. they became a patchwork of new and old cuticle. Thus, the epidermal structures of the abdomen vary as to the time that each becomes independent of the prothoracic glands. The first structures which continue fifth-instar differentiation in the absence of the prothoracic glands are the crochets. These are then followed in order by the prolegs, the ventral midline, the intersegmental areas, and, by 6 h after PTTH release, the remainder of the abdomen. During this 3 h period the prothoracic glands are presumably secreting ecdysone.
Pharmacokinetics and antitumor efficacy of DSPE-PEG2000 polymeric liposomes loaded with quercetin and temozolomide: Analysis of their effectiveness in enhancing the chemosensitization of drug-resistant glioma cells

In the present study, a new type of DSPE-PEG2000 polymeric liposome for the brain-targeted delivery of poorly water-soluble anticancer drugs was successfully prepared and characterized. The nanoparticles were formed by the self-assembly of an amphiphilic polymer consisting of hydrophilic 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[methoxy(polyethylene glycol)-2000] (DSPE-PEG2000). These nanoliposomes served as a safe delivery platform for the simultaneous delivery of quercetin (QUE) and temozolomide (TMZ) to rat brains. The 2-in-1 PEG2000-DSPE nanoliposomes containing QUE and TMZ (QUE/TMZ-NLs) were rapidly taken up by the U87 glioma cells in vitro, whereas at the same concentrations, the amounts of the free drugs taken up were minimal. The QUE/TMZ-NLs showed an enhanced potency in the U87 cells and the TMZ-resistant U87 cells (U87/TR cells), possibly due to the high intracellular drug concentration and the subsequent drug release. In vivo biodistribution experiments revealed a significant accumulation of QUE/TMZ-NLs in the brain, with significantly increased plasma concentrations of QUE and TMZ, as well as delayed clearance in our rat model of glioma. The results were not so significant for the QUE-loaded nanoliposomes (QUE-NLs) and free TMZ. The findings of our study establish the DSPE-PEG2000 polymeric liposome as a novel and effective nanocarrier for enhancing drug delivery to brain tumors.
On the Nature of Cache Miss Behavior: Is It √2?

It has long been empirically observed that the cache miss rate decreased as a power law of cache size, where the power was approximately -1/2. In this paper, we examine the dependence of the cache miss rate on cache size both theoretically and through simulation. By combining the observed time dependence of the cache reference pattern with a statistical treatment of cache entry replacement, we predict that the cache miss rate should vary with cache size as an inverse power law for a first level cache. The exponent in the power law is directly related to the time dependence of cache references, and lies between -0.3 to -0.7. Results are presented for both direct mapped and set associative caches, and for various levels of the cache hierarchy. Our results demonstrate that the dependence of cache miss rate on cache size arises from the temporal dependence of the cache access pattern.
[Coronary risk estimation in Spain using a calibrated Framingham function].

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES The Framingham coronary heart disease (CHD) functions overestimate the risk of CHD in countries with a low incidence. Consequently, these functions should be calibrated for the purpose of primary prevention. Calibrated Framingham function charts of overall CHD risk for the Spanish population are presented. Patients and methods. The Framingham functions were calibrated by substituting the prevalence of CHD risk factors and incidence found in Framingham with the same values for Spain. The Framingham function that included high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol was used. The 10-year probability of developing a CHD event was estimated for several combinations of risk factors and HDL levels ranging from 35 to 59 mg/dl. Color-coded charts were prepared that show the exact probability of CHD corresponding to each combination of risk factors, shown in separate cells on the chart. RESULTS The event rate and prevalence of CHD risk factors differed considerably between Girona and Framingham. HDL < 35 mg/dL increased risk by approximately 50% and HDL > 60 mg/dL reduced it by 50%. The proportion of cells in which the 10-year probability of developing a CHD event was > 9% was 2.3 times higher and that of cells with a probability > 19% was 13 times lower in the chart calibrated for Spain than in the original Framingham charts. CONCLUSIONS The calibrated Framingham function may help to more accurately estimate the overall risk of CHD in the Spanish population for primary prevention purposes. The calibrated function should be validated, and the development of functions for the Spanish population should be promoted.
Mangrove Habitat Use by Juvenile Reef Fish: Meta-Analysis Reveals that Tidal Regime Matters More than Biogeographic Region

Identification of critical life-stage habitats is key to successful conservation efforts. Juveniles of some species show great flexibility in habitat use while other species rely heavily on a restricted number of juvenile habitats for protection and food. Considering the rapid degradation of coastal marine habitats worldwide, it is important to evaluate which species are more susceptible to loss of juvenile nursery habitats and how this differs across large biogeographic regions. Here we used a meta-analysis approach to investigate habitat use by juvenile reef fish species in tropical coastal ecosystems across the globe. Densities of juvenile fish species were compared among mangrove, seagrass and coral reef habitats. In the Caribbean, the majority of species showed significantly higher juvenile densities in mangroves as compared to seagrass beds and coral reefs, while for the Indo-Pacific region seagrass beds harbored the highest overall densities. Further analysis indicated that differences in tidal amplitude, irrespective of biogeographic region, appeared to be the major driver for this phenomenon. In addition, juvenile reef fish use of mangroves increased with increasing water salinity. In the Caribbean, species of specific families (e.g. Lutjanidae, Haemulidae) showed a higher reliance on mangroves or seagrass beds as juvenile habitats than other species, whereas in the Indo-Pacific family-specific trends of juvenile habitat utilization were less apparent. The findings of this study highlight the importance of incorporating region-specific tidal inundation regimes into marine spatial conservation planning and ecosystem based management. Furthermore, the significant role of water salinity and tidal access as drivers of mangrove fish habitat use implies that changes in seawater level and rainfall due to climate change may have important effects on how juvenile reef fish use nearshore seascapes in the future.
Ice Accretion on Wind Turbine Blades

— In this paper, both experimental and numerical simulations of the effects of ice accretion on a NACA 64-618 airfoil section with 7 o angle of attack are presented. The wind tunnel tests were conducted in a closed-circuit climatic wind tunnel at Force Technology in Denmark. The changes of aerodynamic forces were monitored as ice was building up on the airfoil for glaze, rime and mixed ice. In the first part of the numerical analysis, the resulted ice profiles of the wind tunnel tests were compared to profiles estimated by using the 2D ice accretion code TURBICE. In the second part, Ansys Fluent was used to estimate the aerodynamic coefficients of the iced profiles. It was found that both reduction of lift coefficient and increase of drag coefficient is a nearly linear process. Mixed ice formation causes the largest flow disturbance and thus the most lift degradation. Whereas, the suction side of the rime iced ice profile follows the streamlines quite well, disturbing the flow the least. The TURBICE analysis agrees fairly with the profiles produced during the wind tunnel testing.
Bonding Vertex Sets Over Distributed Graph: A Betweenness Aware Approach

Given two sets of vertices in a graph, it is often of a great interest to find out how these vertices are connected, especially to identify the vertices of high prominence defined on the topological structure. In this work, we formally define a Vertex Set Bonding query (shorted as VSB), which returns a minimum set of vertices with the maximum importance w.r. t total betweenness and shortest path reachability in connecting two sets of input vertices. We find that such a kind of query is representative and could be widely applied in many real world scenarios, e.g., logistic planning, social community bonding and etc. Challenges are that many of such applications are constructed on graphs that are too large to fit in single server, and the VSB query evaluation turns to be NP-hard. To cope with the scalability issue and return the near optimal result in almost real time, we propose a generic solution framework on a shared nothing distributed environment. With the development of two novel techniques, guided graph exploration and betweenness ranking on exploration, we are able to efficiently evaluate queries for error bounded results with bounded space cost. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution with extensive experiments over both real and synthetic large graphs on the Google's Cloud platform. Comparing to the exploration only baseline method, our method achieves several times of speedup.
Object recognition and pose estimation using KLT

This paper presents an object recognition method; feature X-D such as Kanade- Lucas-Tomasi Feature (KLT)-D and Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF)-D. The main idea of the proposed algorithm is to use distance method to achieve rotation and position invariance. The anchor point, a center point of the target boundary region, is proposed in this paper as the basis of the pose estimation and it can be obtained by using KLT points. The proposed method shows more efficient performance for object recognition than SURF method in manipulation robot application. We also suggest a pose estimation method that requires no learning process and it is applicable for real time applications. We provide extensive experimental results to demonstrate performance in object recognition and pose estimation using constructed 44,486 images.
An adaptive psychoacoustic filter for broadband noise reduction in audio signals

A novel adaptive noise reduction filter for audio signals is presented. The main aim of the method is to achieve a balanced tradeoff between noise suppression level and audible quality loss. The noise reduction is based on frequency domain processing of the low energy frequency bands. A perceptual model is applied to achieve the best quality judged by the listener. A major difference compared to conventional spectral subtraction methods, is the fact, that a prior estimate of the noise amplitude spectrum is not required in this method. This makes the proposed method well suitable for music recordings where the noise amplitude spectrum cannot be estimated.
Relationship between transmitting ability for milk predicted in the country of origin of the sire and length of productive life of its daughters in Mexico.

INTRODUCTION Length of productive life (LPL) has been long recognized as a trait of economic importance, not only because of increased replacement costs but also because the loss of milk production incurred when the cows can not reach their full production potential (Allaire and Cunningham, 1980). In countries where cows in dairy herd improvement programs (DHI) are in limited numbers, genetic evaluations usually involve the use of few records. When evaluating foreign sires, it is common that the number of daughters in the importing country are far less than the ones evaluated in the exporting country. This is particularly important when evaluating low heritability traits like LPL. Time from first parturition to culling is not only far from normal distributed, but it presents the added problem of a high incidence of incomplete records (those for which only part of the LPL is known, for example either because the cow is still in the herd or because the cow left the herd to continue its productive life in some other herd). Survival analysis methodology (Kalbfleish and Prentice, 1980) is well suited to handle the above mentioned cases because it can accommodate incomplete records. Ducrocq et al. (1988) studied the use of a Weibull regression model to describe LPL of US dairy cows. The utilization of Weibull regression models and other survival analysis techniques allow the use of incomplete records in the analysis. Cows with culling dates on record are considered as complete records (also known as failures), while cows still in production or cows for which the data is no longer available at the time of study are considered censored records. Ruiz (1991) used a Weibull regression model to study the effect of sire's country of origin, within herd-year standardized milk production level and herd-year on Mexican dairy cattle LPL finding a significant contribution of origin of sire group to the explanation of LPL variation. Ruiz and Trejo (1993) examined the need of an additional random term in the model to better describe the data using a frailty test and concluded that the sire effect was enough to describe the whole behavior of LPL although they never included the genetic relationships among sires or estimated the trait’s heritability. The objectives of this paper were then, to investigate if the genetic evaluation of a sire in its country of origin could be related to the LPL of its daughters in an importing country and to estimate the dispersion parameter for the sire effect under a log-gamma assumption in a Weibull model.
Planning Timber Production with Evolving Prices and Costs

The traditional Faustmann solution to the timber harvesting problem was developed for an environment in which prices, costs, and technology were constant. Recent contributions, recognizing the evolution of economic institutions, have developed solutions to optimal harvesting problems under a variety of more realistic assumptions. Nautiyal and Fowler (1980) show that "The socially desirable rotation in a monopolistic situation is longer than that which maximizes the monopolist's present worth, but is shorter than the atomistic rotation. " (p. 213). Heaps and Neher (1979) derive the optimal rotation when the rate of harvest is constrained. Bare and Waggener (1980) investigate the value of timberland when timber prices change, using a traditional Faustmann model. Murphy, Fortson, and Bethune (1977) deal with an imperfect capital market. One problem not addressed by recent contributions concerns the violation of the assumption of constant price and cost functions for timber production. This assumption clearly does not hold. Stumpage prices exhibit substantial short-run fluctuations and systematic long-run trends. For Southern pine and Douglas fir, two species that are potential crops for timber plantations, historical evidence demonstrates that stumpage prices relative to other price have grown steadily. For the period 1913-1978, the ratio of Southern pine stumpage price to prices paid by farmers increased at a 4% annual rate, while the same ratio for Douglas fir increased at an annual rate of 5.7%. 1 For Douglas fir and Southern pine, forecasts of prices and costs based on his-