Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Classification of Human Carotid Atherosclerotic Lesions With In Vivo Multicontrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Background—Recent studies demonstrated that in vivo and ex vivo MRI can characterize the components of the carotid atherosclerotic plaque, such as fibrous tissue, lipid/necrotic core, calcium, hemorrhage, and thrombus. The purpose of this study was to determine whether in vivo high-resolution multicontrast MRI could accurately classify human carotid atherosclerotic plaque according to the American Heart Association classification. Methods and Results—Sixty consecutive patients (mean age 70 years; 54 males) scheduled for carotid endarterectomy were imaged with a 1.5-T scanner after informed consent was obtained. A standardized protocol was used to obtain 4 different contrast-weighted images (time of flight and T1-, PD-, and T2-weighted) of the carotid arteries. Best voxel size was 0.25×0.25×1 mm3. Carotid plaques were removed intact and processed for histological examination. Both MR images and histological sections were independently reviewed, categorized, and compared. Overall, the classification obtained by MRI and the American Heart Association classifications showed good agreement, with Cohen’s &kgr; (95% CI) of 0.74 (0.67 to 0.82) and weighted &kgr; of 0.79. The sensitivity and specificity, respectively, of MRI classification were as follows: type I-II lesions, 67% and 100%; type III lesions, 81% and 98%; type IV-V lesions, 84% and 90%; type VI lesions, 82% and 91%; type VII lesions, 80% and 94%; and type VIII lesions, 56% and 100%. Conclusions—In vivo high-resolution multicontrast MRI is capable of classifying intermediate to advanced atherosclerotic lesions in the human carotid artery and is also capable of distinguishing advanced lesions from early and intermediate atherosclerotic plaque.
Temporally Relevant Answer Selection

Successful intelligence analysis requires a robust temporal reasoning model in a state of the art question answering system. This paper demonstrates such a model using the following approach: (1) detect temporally related events in natural language text, (2) convert the events into a SUMO (Suggested Upper Merged Ontology) enriched logical representation, and (3) select answer candidates via context resolution in a first order logic theorem prover. The results show that temporally informed question answering out performs an uninformed system by up to 22.0% on 200 time sensitive questions from the TREC collection.
Multiple ramp schemes

A (t,k,n,S) ramp scheme is a protocol to distribute a secret s chosen in S among a set P of n participants in such a way that: (1) sets of participants of cardinality greater than or equal to k can reconstruct the secret s; (2) sets of participants of cardinality less than or equal to t have no information on s, whereas (3) sets of participants of cardinality greater than t and less than k might have "some" information on s. In this correspondence we analyze multiple ramp schemes, which are protocols to share many secrets among a set P of participants, using different ramp schemes. In particular, we prove a tight lower bound on the size of the shares held by each participant and on the dealer's randomness in multiple ramp schemes.
Structural integrity of composite laminates with interlaced actuators

A three-dimensional finite-element model is developed to analyze the interlaminar stress state surrounding an interlaced, active actuator embedded within a unidirectional composite laminate. Interlacing increases the strength of composite structures with embedded actuators by redistributing the load around the inclusion and softening the material discontinuity between the actuator and the composite structure. The analysis shows that interlacing results in as much as a 42% reduction in the magnitude of the maximum interlaminar tensile normal stress and a 22% reduction in the magnitude of the maximum interlaminar shear stress in the laminate. Moreover, the critical location of delamination initiation can be relocated from the interface between the actuator and the host material to a location away from the embedded actuator, thus maintaining the authority of the actuator even after the onset of delamination.
Testing Metabolic Theories

Metabolism is the process by which individual organisms acquire energy and materials from their environment and use them for maintenance, differentiation, growth, and reproduction. There has been a recent push to build an individual-based metabolic underpinning into ecological theory—that is, a metabolic theory of ecology. However, the two main theories of individual metabolism that have been applied in ecology—Kooijman’s dynamic energy budget (DEB) theory and the West, Brown, and Enquist (WBE) theory—have fundamentally different assumptions. Surprisingly, the core assumptions of these two theories have not been rigorously compared from an empirical perspective. Before we can build an understanding of ecology on the basis of individual metabolism, we must resolve the differences between these theories and thus set the appropriate foundation. Here we compare the DEB and WBE theories in detail as applied to ontogenetic growth and metabolic scaling, from which we identify circumstances where their predictions diverge most strongly. Promising experimental areas include manipulative studies of tissue regeneration, body shape, body condition, temperature, and oxygen. Much empirical work designed specifically with DEB and WBE theory in mind is required before any consensus can be reached on the appropriate theoretical basis for a metabolic theory of ecology.
Treating software quality as a first-class entity

Quality is a crucial property of any software system and consists of many aspects. On the one hand, quality measures how well a piece of software satisfies its functional requirements. On the other hand, it captures how easy it is to understand, test and modify a software system. While functional requirements are provided by the product owner, maintainability of software is often underestimated. Currently software quality is either assessed by experts, or presented as a list of rule violations reported by some kind of static analyzer. Both these approaches are working with a sense of quality outside of the software itself.
THE EFFECT OF PROTANDRY ON SIRING SUCCESS IN CHAMERION ANGUSTIFOLIUM (ONAGRACEAE) WITH DIFFERENT INFLORESCENCE SIZES

Abstract Protandry, a form of temporal separation of gender within hermaphroditic flowers, may reduce the magnitude of pollen lost to selfing (pollen discounting) and also serve to enhance pollen export and outcross siring success. Because pollen discounting is strongest when selfing occurs between flowers on the same plant, the advantage of protandry may be greatest in plants with large floral displays. We tested this hypothesis with enclosed, artificial populations of Chamerion angustifolium (Onagraceae) by experimentally manipulating protandry (producing uniformly adichogamous or mixed protandrous and adichogamous populations) and inflorescence size (two-, six-, or 10-flowered inflorescences) and measuring pollinator visitation, seed set, female outcrossing rate, and outcross siring success. Bees spent more time foraging on and visited more flowers of larger inflorescences than small. Female outcrossing rates did not vary among inflorescence size treatments. However, seed set per fruit decreased with increasing inflorescence size, likely as a result of increased abortion of selfed embryos, perhaps obscuring the magnitude of geitonogamous selfing. Protandrous plants had a marginally higher female outcrossing rate than adichogamous plants, but similar seed set. More importantly, protandrous plants had, on average, a twofold siring advantage relative to adichogamous plants. However, this siring advantage did not increase linearly with inflorescence size, suggesting that protandry acts to enhance siring success, but not exclusively by reducing between-flower interference.
Natural polyphenols: Influence on membrane transporters

Accumulated evidence has focused on the use of natural polyphenolic compounds as nutraceuticals since they showed a wide range of bioactivities and exhibited protection against variety of age-related disorders. Polyphenols have variable potencies to interact, and hence alter the activities of various transporter proteins, many of them classified as anion transporting polypeptide-binding cassette transporters like multidrug resistance protein and p-glycoprotein. Some of the efflux transporters are, generally, linked with anticancer and antiviral drug resistance; in this context, polyphenols may be beneficial in modulating drug resistance by increasing the efficacy of anticancer and antiviral drugs. In addition, these effects were implicated to explain the influence of dietary polyphenols on drug efficacy as result of food-drug interactions. However, limited data are available about the influence of these components on uptake transporters. Therefore, the objective of this article is to review the potential efficacies of polyphenols in modulating the functional integrity of uptake transporter proteins, including those terminated the effect of neurotransmitters, and their possible influence in neuropharmacology.
On the Interpretation of Anaphoric Noun Phrases: Towards a Full Understanding of Partial Matches

Starting from the assumption that NPs of all kinds can be anaphoric on antecedents in the linguistic context, we work towards a general theory of context-dependent NP meaning. Two complicating factors are that the relation between anaphors and antecedents is by no means unrestricted and that often there is a partial match between anaphor and antecedent. We argue that the presuppositions-as-anaphors approach of van der Sandt provides a natural starting point for our enterprise. Unfortunately, this theory has a number of deficiencies for our purposes, in particular where the treatment of partial matches is concerned. We propose a number of modifications of van der Sandt's formal theory and apply the modified algorithm first to definite NPs and later to NPs of all kinds. The resulting modified version of the presuppositions-as-anaphors theory is argued to be more general, formally more precise, and empirically more adequate than its predecessor.
Surface micromachining for microelectromechanical systems

Surface micromachining is characterized by the fabrication of micromechanical structures from deposited thin films. Originally employed for integrated circuits, films composed of materials such as low-pressure chemical-vapor-deposition polycrystalline silicon, silicon nitride, and silicon dioxides can be sequentially deposited and selectively removed to build or "machine" three-dimensional structures whose functionality typically requires that they be freed from the planar substrate. Although the process to accomplish this fabrication dates from the 1960's, its rapid extension over the past few years and its application to batch fabrication of micromechanisms and of monolithic microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) make a thorough review of surface micromachining appropriate at this time. Four central issues of consequence to the MEMS technologist are: (i) the understanding and control of the material properties of microstructural films, such as polycrystalline silicon, (ii) the release of the microstructure, for example, by wet etching silicon dioxide sacrificial films, followed by its drying and surface passivation, (iii) the constraints defined by the combination of micromachining and integrated-circuit technologies when fabricating monolithic sensor devices, and (iv) the methods, materials, and practices used when packaging the completed device. Last, recent developments of hinged structures for postrelease assembly, high-aspect-ratio fabrication of molded parts from deposited thin films, and the advent of deep anisotropic silicon etching hold promise to extend markedly the capabilities of surface-micromachining technologies.
A Survey on Causes of Bleaching , Breaking and Dislocation of Coral Colonies in Chabahar Bay

At south east side of Chabahar Golf, nearby the storage tanks of “The Administration for Harborage and Shipping” and at the verge of Shahid Beheshti jetty, there is a wide vast area covered by Coral Reefs. This area is located in [52 25 17] degree of northern Longitude, and [60 36 66] degree of eastern latitude, and has been recognized, studied and protected since the year 2000. On 2002 a secondary breakwater was established between the Beheshti jetty and the area of growing coral reefs. During the year 2004, the coral reefs in that area faced quite a serious problem due to dredging operation took place in the area, and also the existence of a new breakwater. In order to estimate the loss and damages received by the coral colonies in the area, different methods were applied such as the Direct Observation method (via scuba-diving operation), Line Transect method, and the new method of Coral Watch. The results of the studies revealed the fact of an increase in the water’s temperature and a decrease in the water’s transparency, as well as accumulation of a great deal of sediments in sea bed. A great deal deposits silted over the area, with a thickness up to 5 cm from the joining parts of the corals to the sea bed due to dredging operation, building a secondary breakwater and also diminishing the natural water circulation in the area. After this event, the corals lost their symbiosis unicelloular algae living in their connecting parts to the sea bed and have turned into white color. The direct observation showed that a great deal of the staghorn corals have been detached from their rear connecting parts the bed, and were leaned to one side. The studies made through the Line Transect and Coral Watch are also proving the existence of the pressure and appearing the unwanted agents in the area, which prevents the growth and developing the coral reefs. The key words : Chabahar Golf, Coral Reef, Coral Relocation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Watch, Line Transect,
The Role of Oligomerization and Cooperative Regulation in Protein Function: The Case of Tryptophan Synthase

The oligomerization/co-localization of protein complexes and their cooperative regulation in protein function is a key feature in many biological systems. The synergistic regulation in different subunits often enhances the functional properties of the multi-enzyme complex. The present study used molecular dynamics and Brownian dynamics simulations to study the effects of allostery, oligomerization and intermediate channeling on enhancing the protein function of tryptophan synthase (TRPS). TRPS uses a set of α/β–dimeric units to catalyze the last two steps of L-tryptophan biosynthesis, and the rate is remarkably slower in the isolated monomers. Our work shows that without their binding partner, the isolated monomers are stable and more rigid. The substrates can form fairly stable interactions with the protein in both forms when the protein reaches the final ligand–bound conformations. Our simulations also revealed that the α/β–dimeric unit stabilizes the substrate–protein conformation in the ligand binding process, which lowers the conformation transition barrier and helps the protein conformations shift from an open/inactive form to a closed/active form. Brownian dynamics simulations with a coarse-grained model illustrate how protein conformations affect substrate channeling. The results highlight the complex roles of protein oligomerization and the fine balance between rigidity and dynamics in protein function.
Passive Decomposition and Control of Nonholonomic Mechanical Systems

We propose nonholonomic passive decomposition, which enables us to decompose the Lagrange-D'Alembert dynamics of multiple (or a single) nonholonomic mechanical systems with a formation-specifying (holonomic) map into 1) shape system, describing the dynamics of (i.e., formation aspect), where is the systems' configuration; 2) locked system, describing the systems' motion on the level set of with the formation aspect being fixed (i.e., maneuver aspect); 3) quotient system, whose nonzero motion perturbs both the formation and maneuver aspects simultaneously; and 4) energetically conservative inertia-induced coupling among them. All the locked, shape, and quotient systems individually inherit Lagrangian dynamics-like structure and passivity, which facilitate their control design/analysis. Canceling out the coupling, regulating the quotient system, and controlling the locked and shape systems individually, we can drive the formation and maneuver aspects simultaneously and separately. Notions of formation/maneuver decoupled controllability are introduced to address limitations imposed by the nonholonomic constraint, along with passivity-based formation/maneuver control design examples. Numerical simulations are performed to illustrate the theory. Extension to kinematic nonholonomic systems is also presented.
HAADF-STEM study of β′-type precipitates in an over-aged Al–Mg–Si–Ag alloy

Coarse, rod-shaped precipitates growing along ⟨100⟩Al directions in an Al–1.0 wt% Mg2Si alloy with 0.5 wt% Ag additions were investigated by high-resolution high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM). All investigated precipitates had complex structures, being composed of domains separated by anti-phase resembling boundaries. The domains consist of a modified hexagonal β′-type structure that contains a considerable amount of Ag. Based on HAADF-STEM images, an average atomic model with space group P-62 m (189) and composition Al3Mg3Si2Ag is proposed, having Al incorporation and Ag replacing certain Si atomic columns. Co-existence with the Ag-free β′-Mg9Si5 phase has been observed for some precipitates. The boundaries may be described as full or half units of the orthorhombic U2-AlMgSi precipitate phase. The HAADF-STEM images indicate partial replacements of Al atoms by Ag, in both the β′-type domains and the U2-type boundaries. Ag enrichment of the Al matrix near the precipitate/Al interface was observed for all the investigated precipitates
Inhibition of shivering as a cause of metabolic suppression with norepinephrine in warm- and cold-acclimated rats.

The metabolic response of warm-acclimated (25 degrees C for 4 weeks) and cold-acclimated (5 degrees C for 4 weeks) rats to infused norepinephrine (NE) (0.5-4 micrograms/(kg.min)) was measured at an ambient temperature of 13 degrees C, either before or after sinoaortic denervation. In warm-acclimated rats, vigorous shivering consistently occurring at 13 degrees C was greatly inhibited by NE in a dose of 2-4 microgram/(kg.min). After sinoaortic denervation, no such inhibition of shivering was observed. In cold-acclimated rats, NE did not suppress but increased heat production at this temperature, no visible shivering being noticed. Phenylephrine, a alpha-adrenergic stimulant, increased blood pressure and decreased heart rate to the same extent in both groups of rats at this temperature. NE suppressed heat production even in cold-acclimated rats at -5 degrees C, where the animals exhibited shivering. These results indicated that NE infusion inhibits shivering via the sinoaortic baroreceptor reflex, in both warm-acclimated and cold-acclimated rats. The non-occurrence of metabolic suppression in cold-acclimated rats after norepinephrine infusion in the 13 degrees C environment may be due to an absence of shivering which is suppressed at this temperature.
Millimeter-Wave Transmission Line in 90-nm CMOS Technology

A twice interleaved metal patterns is proposed for decreasing transmission line loss and maintaining operating bandwidth when using 90-nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology. Three transmission lines are implemented in this experiment. The measurement results show that the location of interleaved metal patterns in metal-1 and metal-2 films decreases the attenuation constant and increases the operating bandwidth compared to the conventional transmission line. To deeply understand the phenomenon, the effective height is calculated to analyze the experiment result. The comparison results show the proposed and conventional transmission lines obtain attenuation constants of 0.26 dB/mm and 0.71 dB/mm at 40 GHz . The proposed transmission line can potentially make huge improvements in millimeter-wave operation.
Multi-channel optical sensor-array for measuring ballistocardiograms and respiratory activity in bed

Our work covers improvements in sensors and signal processing for unobtrusive, long-term monitoring of cardiac (and respiratory) rhythms using only non-invasive vibration sensors. We describe a system for the unobtrusive monitoring of vital signs by means of an array of novel optical ballistocardiography (BCG) sensors placed underneath a regular bed mattress. Furthermore, we analyze the systems spatial sensitivity and present proof-of-concept results comparing our system to a more conventional BCG system based on a single electromechanical-film (EMFi) sensor. Our preliminary results suggest that the proposed optical multi-channel system could have the potential to reduce beat-to-beat heart rate estimation errors, as well as enable the analysis of more complex breathing patterns.
Early Development and Acquisition of Zooxanthellae in the Temperate Symbiotic Sea Anemone Anthopleura ballii (Cocks)

The ova of Anthopleura ballii become infected with zooxanthellae (endosymbiotic dinoflagellates) of maternal origin just prior to spawning. After fertilization, the zygotes undergo radial, holoblastic cleavage, and then gastrulate by invagination to form ciliated planulae. Because the zooxanthellae are localized on one side of the ovum—and later, within the blastomeres at one end of the embryo—invagination leads to the zooxanthellae being restricted to the planular endoderm and hence to the gastrodermal cells of the adult anemone. We propose that maternal inheritance of zooxanthellae plays an important part in the success of these temperate sea anemones, which live in regions where potential sources of zooxanthellae are scarce.
Healing of the bone with anti-fracture drugs

Introduction: Fracture healing is a complex process that leads to the restoration of tissue integrity through bone repair and represents a unique physiological characteristic of bone. Developing a better understanding of a fracture is essential to plan best noninvasive treatment for the patient. In osteoporosis, the patient who suffers of a fragility fracture is recommended to initiate a treatment with compounds active in preventing other low-energy skeletal trauma. Pharmaceutical industries are developing controlled clinical trials aiming to evaluate the capability of osteoporosis drugs to accelerate fracture healing. Areas covered: In preparing this review, a search was made with key words encompassing ‘osteoporosis anti-fracture drugs and bone repair/healing', ‘antiresorptives and bone repair/healing', ‘bone-forming agents and bone repair/healing', and ‘osteoporosis/anti-fracture drugs in fractures'. The results published in the area of the use of registered anti-fracture drugs to improve fracture repair and the efforts made to recommend measures for clinical outcomes in fracture healing acceleration are described in this report. Expert opinion: At present, the use of systemic pharmacological agents active to improve fracture healing by the clinicians is controversial and clinicians and scientists must do a better job in determining the methods of assessment for fracture healing.