Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Correlations between Percolation Threshold, Dispersion State, and Aspect Ratio of Carbon Nanotubes

Critical factors that determine the percolation threshold of carbon nanotube (CNT)‐reinforced polymer nanocomposites are studied. An improved analytical model is developed based on an interparticle distance concept. Two dispersion parameters are introduced in the model to correctly reflect the different dispersion states of CNTs in the matrix—entangled bundles and well‐dispersed individual CNTs. CNT–epoxy nanocomposites with different dispersion states are fabricated from the same constituent materials by employing different processing conditions. The corresponding percolation thresholds of the nanocomposites vary over a wide range, from 0.1 to greater than 1.0 wt %, and these variations are explained in terms of dispersion parameters and aspect ratios of CNTs. Important factors that control the percolation threshold of nanocomposites are identified based on the comparison between modeling data and experimental results.
DSCAM-mediated control of dendritic and axonal arbor outgrowth enforces tiling and inhibits synaptic plasticity

Significance Adult neurons are not able to make new connections as easily as developing neurons can; however, future therapies aimed at regeneration and repair of neural circuits in the adult nervous system depend critically on the formation of such connections. Here, we studied a recently discovered cell population that has the unusual ability to make new connections into adulthood, but under normal conditions does not grow new axons or dendrites, so that no new cells are contacted. We manipulated this cell population to induce axon and dendrite outgrowth using transgenic methods and determined that this results in stable, functional connections with new cells. Mature mammalian neurons have a limited ability to extend neurites and make new synaptic connections, but the mechanisms that inhibit such plasticity remain poorly understood. Here, we report that OFF-type retinal bipolar cells in mice are an exception to this rule, as they form new anatomical connections within their tiled dendritic fields well after retinal maturity. The Down syndrome cell-adhesion molecule (Dscam) confines these anatomical rearrangements within the normal tiled fields, as conditional deletion of the gene permits extension of dendrite and axon arbors beyond these borders. Dscam deletion in the mature retina results in expanded dendritic fields and increased cone photoreceptor contacts, demonstrating that DSCAM actively inhibits circuit-level plasticity. Electrophysiological recordings from Dscam−/− OFF bipolar cells showed enlarged visual receptive fields, demonstrating that expanded dendritic territories comprise functional synapses. Our results identify cell-adhesion molecule-mediated inhibition as a regulator of circuit-level neuronal plasticity in the adult retina.
Stochastic processes on graphs with cycles: geometric and variational approaches

Stochastic processes de ned on graphs arise in a tremendous variety of elds, including statistical physics, signal processing, computer vision, arti cial intelligence, and information theory. The formalism of graphical models provides a useful language with which to formulate fundamental problems common to all of these elds, including estimation, model tting, and sampling. For graphs without cycles, known as trees, all of these problems are relatively well-understood, and can be solved eÆciently with algorithms whose complexity scales in a tractable manner with problem size. In contrast, these same problems present considerable challenges in general graphs with cycles. The focus of this thesis is the development and analysis of methods, both exact and approximate, for problems on graphs with cycles. Our contributions are in developing and analyzing techniques for estimation, as well as methods for computing upper and lower bounds on quantities of interest (e.g., marginal probabilities; partition functions). In order to do so, we make use of exponential representations of distributions, as well as insight from the associated information geometry and Legendre duality. Our results demonstrate the power of exponential representations for graphical models, as well as the utility of studying collections of modi ed problems de ned on trees embedded within the original graph with cycles. The speci c contributions of this thesis include the following. We develop a method for performing exact estimation of Gaussian processes on graphs with cycles by solving a sequence of modi ed problems on embedded spanning trees. We present the tree-based reparameterization framework for approximate estimation of discrete processes. This framework leads to a number of theoretical results on belief propagation and related algorithms, including characterizations of their xed points and the associated approximation error. Next we extend the notion of reparameterization to a much broader class of methods for approximate inference, including Kikuchi methods, and present results on their xed points and accuracy. Finally, we develop and analyze a novel class of upper bounds on the log partition function based on convex combinations of distributions in the exponential domain. In the special case of combining tree-structured distributions, the associated dual function gives an interesting perspective on the Bethe free energy. Thesis Supervisors: Alan S. Willsky and Tommi S. Jaakkola Title: Professors of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
An Extensive Estimation and Analysis of Image Denoising

Image denoising is the technique of removal of the noise from the image contaminated by additive Gaussian noise without loss of features of image. It is a fundamental process in pattern recognition and image processing. When an Image is captured many factors such as lighting spectra, source, intensity and camera Characteristics affect the image. The main factor that reduces the quality of the image is Noise. It hides the important information of images and changes value of image pixels at key locations causing blurring and various other deformities. Noises must be removed from the images without loss of any information with it. Noise removal is the preprocessing stage of image processing. There are many types of noises which may corrupt the images. These noises are appear on images in many ways: at the time of acquisition due to noisy sensors, due to defective scanner or due to faulty digital camera device, as a result of transmission channel errors, due to corrupted storage media. There are numerous researches have been done on wavelet based denoising for estimation of parameters such as variance of the multi scale Linear minimum mean square error. In this review paper we have presented an extensive analysis and literature review on image denoising.
New Spanish speech corpus database for the analysis of people suffering from Parkinson’s disease

Parkinsons disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s, affecting about 1% of the people older than 65 and about 89% of the people with PD develop different speech disorders. Different researchers are currently working in the analysis of speech of people with PD, including the study of different dimensions in speech such as phonation, articulation,prosody and intelligibility. The study of phonation and articulation has been addressed mainly considering sustained vowels; however, the analysis of prosody and intelligibility requires the inclusion of words, sentences and monologue. In this paper we present a new database with speech recordings of 50 patients with PD and their respective healthy controls, matched by age and gender. All of the participants are Spanish native speakers and the recordings were collected following a protocol that considers both technical requirements and several recommendations given by experts in linguistics, phoniatry and neurology. This corpus includes tasks such as sustained phonations of the vowels, diadochokinetic evaluation, 45 words, 10 sentences, a reading text and a monologue. The paper also includes results of the characterization of the Spanish vowels considering different measures used in other works to characterize different speech impairments.
Quorum-sensing and cheating in bacterial biofilms

The idea from human societies that self-interest can lead to a breakdown of cooperation at the group level is sometimes termed the public goods dilemma. We tested this idea in the opportunistic bacterial pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, by examining the influence of putative cheats that do not cooperate via cell-to-cell signalling (quorum-sensing, QS). We found that: (i) QS cheating occurs in biofilm populations owing to exploitation of QS-regulated public goods; (ii) the thickness and density of biofilms was reduced by the presence of non-cooperative cheats; (iii) population growth was reduced by the presence of cheats, and this reduction was greater in biofilms than in planktonic populations; (iv) the susceptibility of biofilms to antibiotics was increased by the presence of cheats; and (v) coercing cooperator cells to increase their level of cooperation decreases the extent to which the presence of cheats reduces population productivity. Our results provide clear support that conflict over public goods reduces population fitness in bacterial biofilms, and that this effect is greater than in planktonic populations. Finally, we discuss the clinical implications that arise from altering the susceptibility to antibiotics.
Minimizing wirelength in zero and bounded skew clock trees

An important problem in VLSI design is distributing a clock signal to synchronous elements in a VLSI circuit so that the signal arrives at all elements simultaneously. The signal is distributed by means of a clock routing tree rooted at a global clock source. The difference in length between the longest and shortest root-leaf path is called the skew of the tree. The problem is to construct a clock tree with zero skew (to achieve synchronicity) and minimal sum of edge lengths (so that circuit area and clock tree capacitance are minimized). We give the first constant-factor approximation algorithms for this problem and its variants that arise in the VLSI context. For the zero skew problem in general metric spaces, we give an approximation algorithm with a performance guarantee of 2e. For the L1 version on the plane, we give an (8/ ln 2)-approximation algorithm.
Urinary excretion of radioimmunoassayable luteinizing hormone (LH) in normal male children and adults, according to age and stage of sexual development.

ABSTRACT Utilizing a radioimmunoassay for LH and acetone precipitates of urine, the 24-hr LH excretion in 91 normal male children and adolescents and 10 normal adults has been correlated with age, stage of sexual development (Tanner), serum LH and FSH concentrations and urinary FSH and 17-KS excretion. Immunologically reactive LH was measured in all urines and progressively increased with age from a mean of 2.3±0.8 IU/24 hr (2nd IRP-HMG) for the 5–8 yr age group to 38.3±13.3 IU for the 17–18 yr age group, and a mean of 31.3±10.3 for adults. Urinary LH increased progressively with the 5 stages of sexual development. A significant correlation existed between urinary and serum LH concentration and 17-KS excretion. In conclusion, 1) LH is excreted in the preadolescent, 2) urinary LH correlates with both the stage of sexual development and the excretion of androgen metabolites, 3) mean LH excretion increased approximately 13 times from childhood to adulthood, whereas FSH excretion increased only 2–3 times, and.
Evidence that anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy with both etanercept and infliximab induces apoptosis in macrophages, but not lymphocytes, in rheumatoid arthritis joints: extended report.

OBJECTIVE Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists is highly effective, but their mechanisms of action are not completely clear. Since anti-TNF therapy induces a decrease in synovial cellularity, this study focused on the modulation of RA synovial apoptosis following treatment with either soluble TNF receptor (etanercept) or TNF chimeric monoclonal antibody (infliximab). METHODS Apoptosis (TUNEL and active caspase 3 staining) and cell surface markers were evaluated by immunohistochemistry in synovial biopsy samples obtained before and after 8 weeks of treatment with etanercept (12 patients) or infliximab (9 patients). We also determined by flow cytometry the in vitro effect of etanercept and infliximab on apoptosis of RA mononuclear cells derived from the synovial fluid (SF) and peripheral blood (PB). RESULTS Eight weeks of treatment with etanercept and with infliximab significantly increased synovial apoptosis. This change was accompanied by a significant decrease in the synovial monocyte/macrophage population. The decrease in lymphocyte numbers did not reach statistical significance. In vitro, 24 hours of incubation with either etanercept or infliximab induced apoptosis of the SF monocyte/macrophage population. PB monocyte/macrophages were less susceptible to anti-TNF-mediated apoptosis. No changes in the rate of apoptosis were observed in the lymphocyte population derived from either SF or PB. CONCLUSION In RA patients, both etanercept and infliximab are able to induce cell type-specific apoptosis in the monocyte/macrophage population. This suggests a potential pathway that would account for the diminished synovial inflammation and the decreased numbers of synovial macrophages evident after TNF blockade.
Caring for the Critically Ill Patient: Past, Present, and Future

MECHANICALLY VENTIlated patients cannot eat normally and if not fed for long periods become malnourished. Because malnutrition is associated with poor outcomes in critically ill patients, artificial nutrition is often provided, especially in those with acute lung injury (ALI) and with expected longer duration of mechanical ventilation. When feasible, enteral nutrition targeting full caloric needs has been advocated over parenteral nutrition. However, feeding intolerance and common care practices (eg, gastric residual volume [GRV] limits) often serve as practical barriers to reaching recommended goals. Although confounded by indication and severity of illness, several observational studies have shown improved clinical outcomes, including fewer infections, shorter duration of mechanical ventilation, and lower mortality for patients receiving a higher percentage of calculated caloric needs. Nonetheless, the best timing, formulation, and amount of enteral nutrition remain unknown. In fact, some recent data suggest that hypocaloric feeding, or permissive underfeeding, may result in shorter
An improved method of dynamic surface control for a class of nonlinear systems

An improved method of dynamic surface second order sliding mode control is presented with arbitrarily small tracking error for nonlinear systems with mismatched uncertainties in the strict feedback form. Comparing with the classical backstepping procedure, the dynamic surface control allows the model is not differentiated, thus avoids the problem of “explosion of the term” that backstepping design suffers from. The second order sliding mode control introduced in the last step not only reduces the quantity of calculation, but also strengthens system robustness and improves its accuracy. The simulation results also prove it.
Parental Evaluation of a Nurse Practitioner-Developed Pediatric Neurosurgery Website

Background Parents often turn to the Internet to seek health information about their child’s diagnosis and condition. Information, support, and resources regarding pediatric neurosurgery are scarce, hard to find, and difficult to comprehend. To address this gap, a pediatric nurse practitioner designed a website called the Neurosurgery Kids Fund (NKF). Analyzing the legitimacy of the NKF website for parents seeking health information and fulfilling their social and resource needs is critical to the website’s future development and success. Objective To explore parental usage of the NKF website, track visitor behavior, evaluate usability and design, establish ways to improve user experience, and identify ways to redesign the website. The aim of this study was to assess and evaluate whether a custom-designed health website could meet parents’ health information, support, and resource needs. Methods A multimethod approach was used. Google Analytic usage reports were collected and analyzed for the period of April 23, 2013, to November 30, 2013. Fifty-two online questionnaires that targeted the website’s usability were collected between June 18, 2014, and July 30, 2014. Finally, a focus group was conducted on August 20, 2014, to explore parents’ perceptions and user experiences. Findings were analyzed using an inductive content analysis approach. Results There were a total of 2998 sessions and 8818 page views, with 2.94 pages viewed per session, a 56.20% bounce rate, an average session duration of 2 minutes 24 seconds, and a 56.24% new sessions rate. Results from 52 eligible surveys included that the majority of NKF users were Caucasian (90%), females (92%), aged 36-45 years (48%), with a university or college degree or diploma (69%). Half plan to use the health information. Over half reported turning to the Internet for health information and spending 2 to 4 hours a day online. The most common reasons for using the NKF website were to (1) gather information about the 2 summer camps, (2) explore the Media Center tab, and (3) stay abreast of news and events supported by NKF. Parents were unanimous in reporting that the NKF website was pleasing in color and design, very easy to use and navigate, useful, and that they would continue to access it regularly. Conclusions Parents perceive the NKF website to be useful and easy-to-use in meeting their health information needs, finding social support, and learning about resources relevant to their child. A custom-designed website can be used to augment parents’ health information needs by reinforcing, supplementing, and improving their understanding of their child’s medical needs.
Management of hypertension in 2017: targets and therapies

Purpose of review Approximately one-fourth of the adult population is diagnosed with hypertension, which has been associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality including cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, heart failure and stroke. Early detection and treatment is key and can lead to a significant reduction in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Recent findings In this review, we discuss the management and treatment strategies in patients with hypertension in the current era. Blood pressure (BP) targets will be reviewed in accordance with the recent literature and current guidelines. There is a controversy about lower BP target in patients with coronary artery disease with some studies showing a J-curve relationship but a recent randomized trial (SPRINT) showing a benefit, albeit with controversy as to how BP was measured in the trial. Nevertheless, lower BP targets come with a price of needing more medication (thus impacting cost and compliance) and increases in medication-related adverse effects. There is a growing recognition that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers, calcium antagonists or thiazide diuretics can be used a first-line therapy for hypertension. Evidence also supports the use of combination drug therapy as opposed to monotherapy for more synergistic effect on lowering of BP, offsetting side effects and for improved adherence to a drug regimen. Summary Overall, we aim to review BP targets and medical therapies for hypertension in the current era, recognizing varying clinical characteristics such as comorbidities and patient-risk profile.
BFT: the time is now

Data centers strive to provide reliable access to the data and services that they host. This reliable access requires the hosted data and services hosted by the data center to be both consistent and available. Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) replication offers the promise of services that are consistent and available despite arbitrary failures by a bounded number of servers and an unbounded number of clients.
Dynamically Selecting Optimal Distribution Strategies for Web Documents

To improve the scalability of the Web, it is common practice to apply caching and replication techniques. Numerous strategies for placing and maintaining multiple copies of Web documents at several sites have been proposed. These approaches essentially apply a global strategy by which a single family of protocols is used to choose replication sites and keep copies mutually consistent. We propose a more flexible approach by allowing each distributed document to have its own associated strategy. We propose a method for assigning an optimal strategy to each document separately and prove that it generates a family of optimal results. Using trace-based simulations, we show that optimal assignments clearly outperform any global strategy. We have designed an architecture for supporting documents that can dynamically select their optimal strategy and evaluate its feasibility.
The Byzantine Empire in the Intercloud Marko Vukolić

The relevance of Byzantine fault tolerance in the context of cloud computing has been questioned [3]. While arguments against Byzantine fault tolerance seemingly makes sense in the context of a single cloud, i.e., a large-scale cloud infrastructure that resides under control of a single, typically commercial provider, these arguments are less obvious in a broader context of the Intercloud, i.e., a cloud of multiple, independent clouds. In this paper, we start from commonly acknowledged issues that impede the adoption of Byzantine fault tolerance within a single cloud, and argue that many of these issues fade when Byzantine fault tolerance in the Intercloud is considered.
Lookback Option Pricing with Fixed Proportional Transaction Costs under Fractional Brownian Motion

The pricing problem of lookback option with a fixed proportion of transaction costs is investigated when the underlying asset price follows a fractional Brownian motion process. Firstly, using Leland's hedging method a partial differential equation satisfied by the value of the lookback option is derived. Then we obtain its numerical solution by constructing a Crank-Nicolson format. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed form is verified through a numerical example. Meanwhile, the impact of transaction cost rate and volatility on lookback option value is discussed.
ECB: Enterprise Cloud Bus Based on WS-Notification and Cloud Queue Model

With the rapid development of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), more and more enterprise applications are built on the Enterprise Services Bus (ESB). However, ESB would not be able to deal with the exchange of data among multiple ESBs. In this paper, we propose an Enterprise Cloud Bus (ECB) framework that combines the WS-Notification with cloud computing. On the basis of WS-Notification specification and cloud queue model, we design and implement the Subscribe Request Queue cloud service model that supports real-time communication among distributed ESB, and supports running non-Service components or composition services deployed on distributed ESB or in different business process. On the basis of cloud platform, our framework shows better scalability and reliability.