Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Solid‐in‐oil nanodispersions for transdermal drug delivery systems

Transdermal administration of drugs has advantages over conventional oral administration or administration using injection equipment. The route of administration reduces the opportunity for drug evacuation before systemic circulation, and enables long‐lasting drug administration at a modest body concentration. In addition, the skin is an attractive route for vaccination, because there are many immune cells in the skin. Recently, solid‐in‐oil nanodisperison (S/O) technique has demonstrated to deliver cosmetic and pharmaceutical bioactives efficiently through the skin. S/O nanodispersions are nanosized drug carriers designed to overcome the skin barrier. This review discusses the rationale for preparation of efficient and stable S/O nanodispersions, as well as application examples in cosmetic and pharmaceutical materials including vaccines. Drug administration using a patch is user‐friendly, and may improve patient compliance. The technique is a potent transcutaneous immunization method without needles.
Application of the probability event horizon filter to constrain the local rate density of binary black hole inspirals with advanced LIGO

The temporal evolution of the gravitational wave background signal resulting from stellar-mass binary black hole (BBH) inspirals has a unique statistical signature. We describe the application of a new filter, based on the 'probability event horizon' (PEH) concept, that utilizes both the temporal and spatial source distribution to constrain the local rate density, r 0 , of BBH inspiral events in the nearby Universe. Assuming advanced LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) sensitivities and an upper rate of Galactic BBH inspirals of 30 Myr -1 , we simulate gravitational wave data and apply a fitting procedure to the PEH filtered data. To determine the accuracy of the PEH filter in constraining r 0 , a comparison is made with a fit to the brightness distribution of events. We apply both methods to a data stream containing a background of Gaussian-distributed false alarms. We find that the brightness distribution yields lower standard errors, but is biased by the false alarms. In comparison, the PEH method is less prone to errors resulting from false alarms but has a lower resolution as fewer events contribute to the data. Used in combination, the PEH and brightness distribution methods provide an improved estimate of the rate density.
Performance of obesity indices for screening elevated blood pressure in pediatric population

Background:Hypertension is closely related with obesity in pediatric population. Obesity indices were used for screening elevated blood pressure (BP) in children and adolescents. The present study was to perform a meta-analysis to assess the performance of obesity indices, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), for identifying elevated BP in children and adolescents. Methods:Data sources were PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane, and SCOPUS up to May 2016. Studies providing measures of diagnostic performance of obesity indices and using age-, sex-, and height-specific BP 95% as reference standard (the definition of United State Fourth Report) were included. We extracted available data on true-positive, false-positive, true-negative, and false-negative to construct a 2 × 2 contingency table and computed the pooled summary statistics for the sensitivities and specificities to estimate the diagnostic performance. Results:Nine eligible studies that evaluated 25,424 children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivities were 42% (BMI), 42% (WC), and 43% (WHtR). The pooled specificities were 80% (BMI), 75% (WC), and 77% (WHtR). The areas under the curve (AUCs) of obesity indices were 0.7780 (BMI), 0.7181 (WC), and 0.6697 (WHtR), respectively. In this meta-analysis, the BP measurements were based on 3 visits in only 1 study. The prevalence of hypertension may be overestimated in these studies. Conclusions:The present meta-analysis showed that the performance of obesity indices for identifying elevated BP was poor. Our findings do not support the performance of WC and WHtR is superior to BMI to help identify children with elevated BP.
Static Dictionaries on Ac 0 Rams: Query Time ( R Log N= Log Log N) Is Necessary and Suucient

In this paper we consider solutions to the static dictionary problem on AC 0 RAMs, i.e. random access machines where the only restriction on the nite instruction set is that all computational instructions are in AC 0. Our main result is a tight upper and lower bound of (p logn= loglog n) on the time for answering membership queries in a set of size n when reasonable space is used for the data structure storing the set; the upper bound can be obtained using O(n) space, and the lower bound holds even if we allow space 2 polylog n. Several variations of this bound is also obtained, including tight upper and lower bounds on the storage space if the query time must be constant and bounds valid for non-AC 0 RAMs if the execution time of an instruction computing a function is measured as the minimal depth of a polynomially sized unbounded fan-in circuit computing the function. We refer to this model as the Circuit RAM. As an example of the latter, we show that any RAM instruction set which permits a linear space, constant query time solution to the static dictionary problem must have an instruction of depth (log w= loglogw), where w is the word size of the machine (and log the size of the universe). This matches the depth of multiplication and integer division, used in the two level perfect hashing scheme by Fredman, Komll os and Szemer edi. One of the non-dictionary related consequences of our techniques is a randomized AC 0 sorting algorithm using O(n(log logn) 2) time and linear space.
Study of microEDM parameters of Stainless Steel 316L: Material Removal Rate Optimization using Genetic Algorithm

Material Removal Rate (MRR) is the most significant factor in the finished product during machining in Micro Electro Discharge Machining (microEDM). In the present research, the investigation of MRR of Stainless Steel 316L which is widely used in the Medical, Marine, Architectural and food processing industries is studied. The current, pulse on time and pulse off time are the input parameters selected for machining using 300μm tungsten electrode to obtain the maximum MRR. By using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) the mathematical model of MRR is obtained by correlating the input parameters. The Genetic Algorithm (GA) is applied to model obtained to arrive the optimal input parameters to achieve the maximum MRR. Experiments are conducted for validating the GA results, which shows that the average percentage of error is 3.65%. Hence, the developed model gives more reliability for the manufacturers to select the optimal input parameters to achieve good quality finished product. Keywords-Response Surface Methodology, Stainless Steel 316L, Material Removal Rate, ANOVA, Genetic Algorithm.
3D multichannels and stacked nanowires technologies for new design opportunities in nanoelectronics

Novel 3D stacked gate-all-around multichannel CMOS architectures were developed to propose low leakage solutions and new design opportunities for sub-32 nm nodes. Those architectures offer specific advantages compared to other planar or non planar CMOS devices. In particular, ultra-low IOFF (< 20 pA/mum) and high ION (> 2.2 mA/mum) were demonstrated. Moreover, those transistors do not suffer from discrete width layout constraints and can benefit from specific options like independent gate operation.
Strong kinetic effects on Sr/Ca ratios in the calcitic bivalve Pecten maximus

Although Sr/Ca ratios in abiogenic calcite are strongly controlled by precipitation rates, such a kinetic effect has never been demonstrated in calcitic bivalve shells. Therefore, we report Sr/Ca ratios together with daily growth rates in the calcitic shells of four individuals of the bivalve Pecten maximus (age class I). Ratios of Sr/Ca were found to be variable among individuals that grew at the same location, illustrating that vital effects dominate over environmental controls. Although daily growth rate was correlated with shell Sr/Ca ratios, it explained only half of the Sr/Ca variations. However, daily shell surface area increment, an estimation of the total quantity of carbonate precipitated for a given time, explained 74% of the Sr/Ca variability in the shells of P. maximus. This proves, for the first time in a calcitic bivalve, that shell Sr/Ca partitioning is mainly controlled by kinetic effects. The Sr/Ca ratio should therefore be tested as a potential proxy of calcification rate in modern or fossil calcitic biocarbonates.
Refining relation identification by combining soft and sensor data

In recent years homeland security is becoming increasingly sensitive to threats posed by the tactics of subversive groups or individuals with malicious intent. Networked groups and organizations leverage various means of communication, ranging from simple phone calls to more sophisticated forms of collaborations. Such data provide a rich collection of evidence from which to infer relationships of individuals or even the structure of networks and organizations. This paper describes an approach developed to combine information from disparate data sources in order to identify relevant relationships in heterogeneous environments. The objective is to discover entities and the relationships they share by a joint combination of sensor and soft data. By analyzing patterns of sensor-based communications and content of reports, the solution highlights entity associations which are indicative of social relationship. First, the approach identifies a set of entity relations thanks to sensor data. Then, association rules extract relations from texts by using a combination of part of speech features provided by natural language processing tools and the entity type, as labeled by a domain ontology. The overall approach is designed for domains such as intelligence analysis, where the analyst attempts to build a picture of relations holding between individuals by combining sensor streams that can refer to real-world ongoing events and more complex reports provided by human sources. Results are evaluated over a heterogeneous data set and experiments show that the combination of soft and hard data outperforms individual approaches in terms of recall.
MEMS-based wireless sensors network system for post-seismic tremor harm evaluation and building monitoring

The assessment of seismic harm is today just about solely focused around visual examination, as building managers are for the most part hesitant to introduce perpetual sensing frameworks, because of their high establishment, administration and upkeep costs. To defeat this impediment, in this paper we introduce little size sensing nodes for estimation of strain and acceleration, coordinating Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) based sensors. The sensors transmit data wirelessly to a remote acquisition unit where data are stored, processed and interpreted using the developed software. This software consists of a damage assessment module and a decision support module, providing respectively an estimation of the level of damage inside the building and an insight of the rehabilitation methodologies and cost. To decrease the effect of establishment and administration, information will be transmitted to a remote base station utilizing a remote interface. The paper plots the gadget working standards, generation plan and working at both unit and network levels. The paper evaluates the temperate maintainability and execution of the sensors created and discusses about their relevance to long haul seismic checking.
The assessment of ADL among frail elderly in an interview survey: self-report versus performance-based tests and determinants of discrepancies.

The impact of three sociodemographic, two cognitive, two affective, and four personality measures on the discrepancies between self-reported and performance-based ADL in a sample of 753 frail elderly is studied by means of multiple regression analyses. Underestimation (i.e., lower self-reported levels of ADL compared to performance-based levels) occurs, in particular, among subjects with low perceptions of physical competence and mastery or personal control, and high levels of depressive symptomatology. In contrast, the role of cognitive functioning and sociodemographic variables in the discrepancies is a minor one. Although self-report ADL measures are easier to administer and less sensitive to nonresponse than performance-based ADL measures, the confounding effects of perceived physical competence, mastery, and depressive symptomatology on self-reported ADL should be considered in any application of self-report measures of ADL among frail elderly.
Evaluation of malaria prevention strategies during pregnancy in Ndola, Zambia

ABSTRACT Background Malaria in pregnancy is associated with many negative outcomes for the woman, foetus and neonate. Intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy (IPTp) using three doses of sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine (SP), insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spray (IRS), constitute the main strategies used to prevent malaria. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies for the reduction of malaria prevalence in pregnant women. Methods A questionnaire on socio-demographic information, history of malaria during current pregnancy and prevention strategies used was administered to 450 consecutive patients admitted into labour wards at three local clinics. From the antenatal cards, information was collected on the last menstrual period, date of each dose of SP taken, gravidity, and HIV status. A blood slide to detect Plasmodium was then collected from each woman after consent. Results Of the participants in the study, 2.4% had a positive blood slide at term and 15.8% reported malaria during pregnancy. All the participants took at least one dose of SP with 87.6% completing the stipulated three doses. The mean gestational ages for each dose were 22.1 (SD 4.6), 29.1 (SD 4.4) and 34.4 (SD 3.9) weeks for the first, second and third dose respectively. With regard to ITNs, 79.5% had one, but only 74.1% used it regularly. IRS was completed in all three of the clinics’ catchment areas. Only 23.4% used commercial insecticide. Conclusion The measured prevalence of malaria at term in Ndola was remarkably low, although the self-reported rate during pregnancy was still high. The national targets for accessing IPTp were exceeded, although the timing of each dose needs to be improved. Access to ITNs was high, but usage needs to increase.
Lean project planning and control: empirical investigation of ETO projects

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate an effective project management practice focusing on planning and control. By doing so, it contributes to the debate on rethinking traditional project management practices and accentuates the need for adjustments based on the project context. ,This paper extends the project management theory by proposing a lean project planning (LPP) and control framework, developed and tested in collaboration with ten engineer-to-order (ETO) companies. By following a design science research approach, elements from lean thinking and current project planning and control practices are combined into a maturity model (MM). ,ETO project characteristics are identified, and their implications for planning and control are discussed. Nine enablers that transform current project planning and control approaches into a lean approach are defined, allowing the analysis of the underlying complexity of planning and controlling ETO projects and thus facilitating the determination of the actions required to improve project performance. ,Once fully embedded in an organization, the presented MM can provide a safe framework for self-criticism and can be used to conduct self-assessments without the need for an external facilitator. Thus, this paper is of particular interest to practicing project managers who aim to implement LPP and control. ,To the authors’ best knowledge, this paper is the first to empirically examine the journey toward LPP and control from a MM perspective. This research attempts to describe the enablers of LPP and control.
Vehicle Type Recognition Based on Radial Basis Function Neural Networks

Neural network is a technology for Intelligent Transportation System and it is important in Vehicle type recognition. However, traditional vehicle type recognition method always utilize BP network. A new vehicle type recognition based on radial basic function neural network was proposed. Also discussed are the problem of feature of vehicle feature vector, the problem of normalization of the image-size, and the problem of training algorithm of hidden layer’s neural nodes. Experiments have been conducted for video monitored by vehicle monitor. The results show that compared with BP neural network, the RBF neural network can decrease the error rate, the training time, and the recognition time efficiently.
Towards next generation multimedia recommendation systems

Empowered by advances in information technology, such as social media network, digital library and mobile computing, there emerges an ever-increasing amounts of multimedia data. As the key technology to address the problem of information overload, multimedia recommendation system has been received a lot of attentions from both industry and academia. This course aims to 1) provide a series of detailed review of state-of-the-art in multimedia recommendation; 2) analyze key technical challenges in developing and evaluating next generation multimedia recommendation systems from different perspectives and 3) give some predictions about the road lies ahead of us.
Chromosomal instability in cell-free DNA is a serum biomarker for prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND Genomic instability resulting in copy number variation is a hallmark of malignant transformation and may be identified through massive parallel sequencing. Tumor-specific cell free DNA (cfDNA) present in serum and plasma provides a real-time, easily accessible surrogate. METHODS DNA was extracted from serum of 204 patients with prostate cancer (Gleason score 2-10), 207 male controls, and patients with benign hyperplasia (n = 10) and prostatitis (n = 10). DNA was amplified by use of random primers, tagged with molecular identifiers, sequenced on a SOLID system, and aligned to the human genome. We evaluated the number of sequence reads of cfDNA in sliding 100-kbp intervals for variation from controls. We used chromosomal regions with significant variations in alignment hits for their ability to segregate patients and matched controls. RESULTS Using ROC curves to assess diagnostic performance, we evaluated the number of regions in a first subset (n = 177), with variations in alignment hits alone, provided an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.81 (95% CI 0.7-0.9, P < 0.001). Using 5 rounds of 10-fold cross-validation with the full data set, we established a final model that discriminated prostate cancer from controls with an AUC of 0.92 (0.87-0.95), reaching a diagnostic accuracy of 83%. Both benign prostatic hypertrophy and prostatitis could be distinguished from prostate cancer by use of cfDNA, with an accuracy of 90%. CONCLUSIONS Assessment of a limited number of chromosomal structural instabilities by use of massive parallel sequencing of cfDNA was sufficient to distinguish between prostate cancer and controls. This large cohort demonstrates the utility of cfDNA in prostate cancer recently established in other malignant neoplasms.
They Obviously Didn’t Stand a Chance : Hindsight Bias in Judgments of a Dating Couple

The couple has some potential issues. Sofia is very religious and spends a lot of time with her campus ministry while Daniel is a firm disbeliever. They are also pursuing opposite careers. She aims to work for a nonprofit and he is majoring in finance. Because of these differences, they tend to hang out with different crowds and don’t share a lot of friends. In fact, their friends don’t really support their relationship. They think the relationship is moving too fast and that Sofia and Daniel are too into each other to recognize that they are on different life paths. For all of these reasons, when certain topics come up there is some tension between Daniel and Sofia.
A First Assessment of the SMOS Soil Moisture Product With In Situ and Modeled Data in Italy and Luxembourg

The European Space Agency Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission was launched on November 2, 2009. Providing accurate soil moisture (SM) estimation is one of its main scientific objectives. Since the end of the commissioning phase, preliminary global SMOS SM data [Level 2 (L2) product] are distributed to users. In this paper, we carried out a first assessment of the reliability of this product through a comparison with in situ observed and modeled SM over three different sites: One is located in Luxemburg, and two are located in Italy. The period from August 1, 2010, to July 1, 2011, has been analyzed, giving us the opportunity to evaluate the satellite response to different SM states. The selected period is important for hydrological predictions as it is typically characterized by a sequence of transitions from dry to wet and from wet to dry conditions. In order to compare SMOS and ground SM measurements, a two-step approach has been applied. First, an exponential filter has been applied to approximate root-zone SM, and second, a cumulative distribution function matching has been employed to remove systematic differences between satellite and in situ observations and model simulations of SM. Our results indicate rather good reliability of the filtered and bias-corrected SM estimates derived from the first SMOS L2 products. Bearing in mind that an updated/advanced version of the SMOS SM product has been recently produced, our preliminary results already seem to confirm the potential of SMOS for monitoring of water in soils.
PIR-Writing Protocol That Supports Information Share

The rapid development of the Internet and the progress of network facilities, cloud database services are very popular with the web users, which allows users to retrieve, update and delete the records of the cloud database. However, these users of such services do not always trust the cloud storage provider to keep their privacy. Therefore, neither the user's database information nor the access pattern is revealed to the storage server. PIR-Writing can protect the user's update privacy from the storage server. In this paper, we propose a new PIR-Writing scheme which support cloud database information sharing by multiple users. Especially, our protocol keep the communication cost o(logn) which is lowest until now. Further more, it can improve the computation cost of PIR-Writing from o(nlogn+ln) to o(1). Meantime, our scheme has a good availability and security.
Integrating image segmentation and annotation using supervised PLSA

In this work, we propose an integrated framework for image segmentation and annotation based on topic models. We first employ probabilistic latent semantic analysis (PLSA) to discover the topics of image regions and pixels, both utilized in our framework to segment images into different regions and to improve the annotation accuracy. Furthermore, we propose a supervised version of PLSA, SPLSA, as a new graphical model in order to accommodate the annotation results into the segmentation process to improve its performance. We compare the proposed SPLSA model with PLSA on their image segmentation performance, and also evaluate the image annotation performance of our methods on different datasets. The experimental results prove that the supervised information in SPLSA improves the segmentation results, and the image annotation accuracy is higher than the state-of-art methods including Conditional Random Fields.