Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Influence of Input Variability on the Compressive Residual Stresses in 30CrMnSiNi2A via Laser Shock Processing

The laser shock processing(LSP) is a new surface treatment technique that induce a significant compressive residual stress field on the metal and alloys. The developed compressive stress field is beneficial to improve surface properties such as fatigue, wear, and corrosion. To improve the understanding of the shock process, investigation into the physical processes and its variability involved is necessary. This work examines the effect of LSP at different input variability to induce its compressive stress. Various factors that affect the compressive stress of the LSP are tested with a serial experimental using 30CrMnSiNi2A as workpiece. It was found that the in-depth residual stress induced by LSP were a function of laser power density,laser beam spot size, laser pulse width and pulse repetition.
Computational learning techniques for intraday FX trading using popular technical indicators

We consider strategies which use a collection of popular technical indicators as input and seek a profitable trading rule defined in terms of them. We consider two popular computational learning approaches, reinforcement learning and genetic programming, and compare them to a pair of simpler methods: the exact solution of an appropriate Markov decision problem, and a simple heuristic. We find that although all methods are able to generate significant in-sample and out-of-sample profits when transaction costs are zero, the genetic algorithm approach is superior for non-zero transaction costs, although none of the methods produce significant profits at realistic transaction costs. We also find that there is a substantial danger of overfitting if in-sample learning is not constrained.
Approximate Max--ow Min-(multi)cut Theorems and Their Applications

Consider the multicommodity ow problem in which the object is to maximize the sum of commodities routed. We prove the following approximate max-ow min-multicut theorem: min multicut O(log k) max ow min multicut; where k is the number of commodities. Our proof is constructive; it enables us to nd a multicut within O(log k) of the max ow (and hence also the optimal multicut). In addition, the proof technique provides a uniied framework in which one can also analyse the case of ows with speciied demands, of Leighton-Rao and Klein et.al., and thereby obtain an improved bound for the latter problem.
Feinberg and Moore MicroRNA Regulation of Atherosclerosis 705

Abstract: Atherosclerosis and its attendant clinical complications, such as myocardial infarction, stroke, and peripheral artery disease, are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Western societies. In response to biochemical and biomechanical stimuli, atherosclerotic lesion formation occurs from the participation of a range of cell types, inflammatory mediators, and shear stress. Over the past decade, microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as evolutionarily conserved, noncoding small RNAs that serve as important regulators and fine-tuners of a range of pathophysiological cellular effects and molecular signaling pathways involved in atherosclerosis. Accumulating studies reveal the importance of miRNAs in regulating key signaling and lipid homeostasis pathways that alter the balance of atherosclerotic plaque progression and regression. In this review, we highlight current paradigms of miRNA-mediated effects in atherosclerosis progression and regression. We provide an update on the potential use of miRNAs diagnostically for detecting increasing severity of coronary disease and clinical events. Finally, we provide a perspective on therapeutic opportunities and challenges for miRNA delivery in the field. (Circ Res. 2016;118:703-720. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.115.306300.)
Analysis of the time and workers needed to conduct systematic reviews of medical interventions using data from the PROSPERO registry

Objectives To summarise logistical aspects of recently completed systematic reviews that were registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) registry to quantify the time and resources required to complete such projects. Design Meta-analysis. Data sources and study selection All of the 195 registered and completed reviews (status from the PROSPERO registry) with associated publications at the time of our search (1 July 2014). Data extraction All authors extracted data using registry entries and publication information related to the data sources used, the number of initially retrieved citations, the final number of included studies, the time between registration date to publication date and number of authors involved for completion of each publication. Information related to funding and geographical location was also recorded when reported. Results The mean estimated time to complete the project and publish the review was 67.3 weeks (IQR=42). The number of studies found in the literature searches ranged from 27 to 92 020; the mean yield rate of included studies was 2.94% (IQR=2.5); and the mean number of authors per review was 5, SD=3. Funded reviews took significantly longer to complete and publish (mean=42 vs 26 weeks) and involved more authors and team members (mean=6.8 vs 4.8 people) than those that did not report funding (both p<0.001). Conclusions Systematic reviews presently take much time and require large amounts of human resources. In the light of the ever-increasing volume of published studies, application of existing computing and informatics technology should be applied to decrease this time and resource burden. We discuss recently published guidelines that provide a framework to make finding and accessing relevant literature less burdensome.
Inter-task WCET computation for a-way instruction caches

In hard real-time applications, Worst Case Execution Time (WCET) is used to check time constraints of the whole system but is only computed at the task level. As most WCET computation methods assume a conservative approach to handle the processor state before the execution of a task, the inter-task analysis of long effect hardware features should improve the accuracy of the result. As an example, we propose to analyze the behavior of an A-way associative instruction cache, by combining inter-and intra-task instruction cache analysis. The aim is to estimate more accurately the number of cache misses due to task chaining by considering task Entry and Exit states along the inter-task analysis. The initial tasks WCETs can be computed by any existing single-task approach that models the instruction cache behavior. A second method is also introduced in this paper which consists in injecting the inter-task cache states in the intra-task WCET analysis, to get more precise numbers.
Indocyanine Green (ICG) Lymphography Is Superior to Lymphoscintigraphy for Diagnostic Imaging of Early Lymphedema of the Upper Limbs

Background Secondary lymphedema causes swelling in limbs due to lymph retention following lymph node dissection in cancer therapy. Initiation of treatment soon after appearance of edema is very important, but there is no method for early diagnosis of lymphedema. In this study, we compared the utility of four diagnostic imaging methods: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), lymphoscintigraphy, and Indocyanine Green (ICG) lymphography. Patients and Methods Between April 2010 and November 2011, we examined 21 female patients (42 arms) with unilateral mild upper limb lymphedema using the four methods. The mean age of the patients was 60.4 years old (35–81 years old). Biopsies of skin and collecting lymphatic vessels were performed in 7 patients who underwent lymphaticovenous anastomosis. Results The specificity was 1 for all four methods. The sensitivity was 1 in ICG lymphography and MRI, 0.62 in lymphoscintigraphy, and 0.33 in CT. These results show that MRI and ICG lymphography are superior to lymphoscintigraphy or CT for diagnosis of lymphedema. In some cases, biopsy findings suggested abnormalities in skin and lymphatic vessels for which lymphoscintigraphy showed no abnormal findings. ICG lymphography showed a dermal backflow pattern in these cases. Conclusions Our findings suggest the importance of dual diagnosis by examination of the lymphatic system using ICG lymphography and evaluation of edema in subcutaneous fat tissue using MRI.
Surfactant Protein D Inhibits HIV-1 Infection of Target Cells via Interference with gp120-CD4 Interaction and Modulates Pro-Inflammatory Cytokine Production

Surfactant Protein SP-D, a member of the collectin family, is a pattern recognition protein, secreted by mucosal epithelial cells and has an important role in innate immunity against various pathogens. In this study, we confirm that native human SP-D and a recombinant fragment of human SP-D (rhSP-D) bind to gp120 of HIV-1 and significantly inhibit viral replication in vitro in a calcium and dose-dependent manner. We show, for the first time, that SP-D and rhSP-D act as potent inhibitors of HIV-1 entry in to target cells and block the interaction between CD4 and gp120 in a dose-dependent manner. The rhSP-D-mediated inhibition of viral replication was examined using three clinical isolates of HIV-1 and three target cells: Jurkat T cells, U937 monocytic cells and PBMCs. HIV-1 induced cytokine storm in the three target cells was significantly suppressed by rhSP-D. Phosphorylation of key kinases p38, Erk1/2 and AKT, which contribute to HIV-1 induced immune activation, was significantly reduced in vitro in the presence of rhSP-D. Notably, anti-HIV-1 activity of rhSP-D was retained in the presence of biological fluids such as cervico-vaginal lavage and seminal plasma. Our study illustrates the multi-faceted role of human SP-D against HIV-1 and potential of rhSP-D for immunotherapy to inhibit viral entry and immune activation in acute HIV infection.
Spontaneous synchronous synaptic calcium transients in cultured cortical neurons

The firing pattern displayed by neuronal aggregates is thought to play a key role in cortical development and physiology. In this study, we have employed optical recording of intracellular calcium to monitor activity of multiple neurons simultaneously in primary cortical cultures. With this approach, we have observed spontaneous synchronous calcium transients among adjacent cortical neurons. These transients appear to be mediated by prominent spontaneous synaptic excitation, as they are enhanced by picrotoxin, a blocker of inhibitory GABAergic transmission, and reduced by antagonism of glutamate receptors or addition of TTX. After picrotoxin treatment, the calcium transients exhibit regular frequency and amplitude, and occur in synchrony with bursts of excitatory synaptic potentials every 10–20 sec. Using electrical stimulation, we have identified a relative refractory period, extending up to 5 sec after a synchronous burst, that may play a role in cell synchronization. NMDA receptor antagonists or reduced extracellular calcium levels lower the amplitude of the calcium transients yet fail to alter their frequency, suggesting that intracellular calcium levels may not be a major determinant of burst frequency. In contrast, mild depolarization with kainic acid (0.5–1 microM) increased burst frequency up to fivefold, suggesting a critical dependence of rhythmic activity on membrane potential. Chronic blockade of electrical activity with TTX beginning a few days after plating of cultures dampens the amplitude and significantly increases the frequency of calcium transients in mature cultures. These studies demonstrate that aggregates of cultured cortical neurons express synchronous firing activity in vitro and that this network activity is dependent in part on neuronal firing during development.
Dynamics, criticality and self-organization in a model for blackouts in power transmission systems

A model has been developed to study the global complex dynamics of a series of blackouts in power transmission systems. This model included a simple level of self-organization by incorporating the growth of power demand and the engineering response to system failures. Two types of blackouts have been identified with different dynamical properties. One type of blackout involves loss of load due to lines reaching their load limits but no line outages. The second type of blackout is associated with multiple line outages. The dominance of one type of blackouts versus the other depends on operational conditions and the proximity of the system to one of its two critical points. The first critical point is characterized by operation with lines close to their line limits. The second critical point is characterized by the maximum in the fluctuations of the load demand being near the generator margin capability. The identification of this second critical point is an indication that the increase of the generator capability as a response to the increase of the load demand must be included in the dynamical model to achieve a higher degree of self-organization. When this is done, the model shows a probability distribution of blackout sizes with power tails similar to that observed in real blackout data,from North America.
Paleodietary Analysis of Human Remains from a Hellenistic-Roman Cemetery at Camihöyük, Turkey

The presence of copper, zinc, magnesium, iron, lead, molybdenum, manganese and nickel was discovered on 22 human ribs in a Hellenistic-Roman cemetery located in the ancient city of Camihoyuk, Turkey. The levels of each element found in the males were higher than those in females, except iron. Copper, magnesium, iron, molybdenum, and nickel levels were measured to be higher in the soil than in the skeletons, whereas the other elements were higher in the human skeletons. Lead was not traced in the soil, but on the skeletons. These individuals had probably been exposed to this element during their lives due to higher consumption of vegetables than meat.
Pure ectodermal dysplasia: retrospective study of 16 cases and literature review.

OBJECTIVE To review the possible craniomaxillofacial deformative consequences associated with ectodermal dysplasias and embryonic malformations, which include dental ageneses. SETTING Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department, University Hospital, Lille, France. PATIENTS Sixteen patients (seven boys and nine girls, aged 4 to 34 years) with pure ectodermal dysplasia (no ectodermal dysplasia syndromes). INTERVENTIONS All patients had a clinical examination. Seven (two boys and five girls, aged 4 to 25 years) had undergone plaster casts and radiographic and Delaire's cephalometric studies before being treated. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES All patients had tooth ageneses (from hypodontia to anodontia), associated with cutaneous dyshidrosis and hair and nail dystrophy. Most of them had a short face, with an unusual facial concavity, a maxillary retrusion, and a relative mandibular protrusion. MANAGEMENT RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Depending on their ages and their orthopedic abnormalities, patients underwent either dental or prosthodontic, orthodontic, orthopedic, orthognathic, or implant treatment. So as not to interfere with the growth pattern, we preferred to reserve implant and orthognathic surgery for full-grown cases. CONCLUSIONS Oral and maxillofacial surgeons must undertake a comprehensive approach to these patients to improve their dental, masticatory, growing, and orthognathic conditions.
Circulating Total Bilirubin and Future Risk of Hypertension in the General Population: The Prevention of Renal and Vascular End‐Stage Disease (PREVEND) Prospective Study and a Mendelian Randomization Approach

Background Circulating total bilirubin is known to be inversely and independently associated with future risk of cardiovascular disease. However, the relationship of circulating total bilirubin with incident hypertension is uncertain. We aimed to assess the association of total bilirubin with future hypertension risk and supplemented this with a Mendelian randomization approach to investigate any causal relevance to the association. Methods and Results Plasma total bilirubin levels were measured at baseline in the PREVEND (Prevention of Renal and Vascular End‐Stage Disease) prospective study of 3989 men and women without hypertension. Hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) of total bilirubin with incident hypertension were assessed. New‐onset hypertension was recorded in 1206 participants during a median follow‐up of 10.7 years. Baseline total bilirubin was approximately log‐linearly associated with hypertension risk. Age‐ and sex‐adjusted hazard ratio for hypertension per 1‐SD increase in loge total bilirubin was 0.86 (0.81–0.92; P<0.001), which was attenuated to 0.94 (0.88–0.99; P=0.040) after further adjustment for established risk factors and other potential confounders. The association was marginally significant on further adjustment for high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein (0.94; 0.88–1.00; P=0.067). A genetic variant at the UGT1A1*28 locus consistently shown to be strongly associated with circulating bilirubin levels—rs6742078—was not significantly associated with blood pressure or hypertension (P>0.05 for all), arguing against a strong causal association of circulating bilirubin with blood pressure. Conclusions The weak and inverse association of circulating total bilirubin with future hypertension risk may be driven by biases such as unmeasured confounding and/or reverse causation. Further evaluation is warranted.
Procedural sedation analgesia

The number of noninvasive and minimally invasive procedures performed outside of the operating room has grown exponentially over the last several decades.Sedation, analgesia, or both may be needed for many of these interventional or diagnostic procedures. Individualized care is important when determining if a patient requires procedural sedation analgesia (PSA). The patient might need an anti-anxiety drug, pain medicine, immobilization, simple reassurance, or a combination of these interventions. The goals of PSA in four different multidisciplinary practices namely; emergency, dentistry, radiology and gastrointestinal endoscopy are discussed in this review article. Some procedures are painful, others painless. Therefore, goals of PSA vary widely. Sedation management can range from minimal sedation, to the extent of minimal anesthesia. Procedural sedation in emergency department (ED) usually requires combinations of multiple agents to reach desired effects of analgesia plus anxiolysis. However, in dental practice, moderate sedation analgesia (known to the dentists as conscious sedation) is usually what is required. It is usually most effective with the combined use of local anesthesia. The mainstay of success for painless imaging is absolute immobility. Immobility can be achieved by deep sedation or minimal anesthesia. On the other hand, moderate sedation, deep sedation, minimal anesthesia and conventional general anesthesia can be all utilized for management of gastrointestinal endoscopy.
Bow tie testing: a testing pattern for product lines

Verification of highly configurable systems poses a significant challenge, the challenge of knowing that every configuration works when there often are intractably many different configurations. When a homogeneous abstraction layer has many mutually exclusive alternative implementations, we might, according to the polymorphic server test pattern, test these implementations using one test suite targeted towards the abstraction layer which is then run for each concrete implementation of the abstraction layer. But, the pattern does not handle interaction testing. Combinatorial interaction testing is one of the more promising techniques for doing interaction testing of a software product line. The bow tie testing pattern describes how the configurations which differ only in the implementation layer require one test suite. In addition, comparing the execution results of one product with another provides for a test oracle. The pattern reduces the effort of testing a highly configurable system without reducing the error detection capabilities provided by ordinary combinatorial interaction testing. We present an example of a subset of the Eclipse IDE product line, and show that only 20 test suites is required to test 41 products, a significant reduction.
Fluted formulas and the limits of decidability

Abstract In the predicate calculus, variables provide a flexible indexing service which selects the actual arguments to a predicate letter from among possible arguments that precede the predicate letter (in the parse of the formula). In the process of selection, the possible arguments can be permuted, repeated (used more than once), and skipped. If this service is withheld, so that arguments must be the immediately preceding ones, taken in the order in which they occur, the formula is said to be fluted. Quine showed that if a fluted formula contains only homogeneous conjunction (conjoins only subformulas of equal arity), then the satisfiability of the formula is decidable. It remained an open question whether the satisfiability of a fluted formula without this restriction is decidable. This paper answers that question.
Design Guidelines for Maximizing Lifetime and Avoiding Energy Holes in Sensor Networks with Uniform Distribution and Uniform Reporting

This paper investigates theoretical aspects of the uneven energy depletion phenomenon recently noticed in sink-based wireless sensor networks. We consider uniformly distributed sensors, each sending roughly the same number of reports toward the closest sink. We assume an energy consumption model governed by the relation E = d +c where d, (d ≤ tx), is the transmission distance, α ≥ 2 is the power attenuation, c is a technology-dependent positive constant, and tx is the maximum transmission range of sensors. Our results are multifold. First, we show that for α > 2, all sensors whose distance to the sink is min{tx, ( 2c α−2 ) 1 α } should transmit directly to the sink. Interestingly, this limit does not depend on the size of the network, expressed as the largest distance R from a sensor to the closest sink. Next, we prove that in order to minimize the total amount of energy spent on routing along a path originating at a sensor in a corona and ending at the sink, all the coronas must have the same width, equal to the above expression. This choice, however, leads to uneven energy depletion and to the creation of energy holes. We show that for α > 2 the uneven energy depletion can be prevented by judicious system design, resulting in balanced energy expenditure across the network. We describe an iterative process for determining the sizes of coronas. Their optimal sizes (and corresponding transmission radii) and the number of coronas depend on R. As expected, the width of coronas in energy-balanced sensor network increases. Finally, we show that for α = 2, the uneven energy depletion phenomenon is intrinsic to the system and no routing strategy can avoid the creation of an energy hole around the sink.