Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SPECTROPOLARIMETRY. II. CIRCULAR POLARIZATION OPTICS AND TECHNIQUES

We discuss the design of a Pancharatnam "superachromatic" quarter-wave plate and its application in two circular spectropolarimeters. The alignment and calibration of the polarimetry optics is discussed, as well as the data reduction techniques. In particular, the differences between reducing linear polarimetry data and reducing circular polarimetry are emphasized.
An Entrepreneurial Definition of the Blockchain Technology and a Stacked Layer Model of the ICO Marketplace Using the Text Mining Approach

The landscape of ICOs and its underlying Blockchain technology needs more clarity, given that several overlapping and opposing views exist from governmental institutions, institutional investors, economists, and academia. Those positions stem from confusion, bias, and vested interest. Having consensus from the pioneer entrepreneurs who define Blockchain technology usage, and its marketplace address this need. Furthermore, an agreement on the problems blockchain is solving from the industry perspective would further the understanding of the technology direction and its “raison d’être. ” or “reason of existence”. The paper analyzes 4367 businesses that requested funding using ICO whitepapers and raising more than $20 billion US dollars during the most active ICO period. Using Latent Semantic Analyses (LSA), the paper identifies a one-factor solution that explains 98.15% of all ICOs. The paper conducts a second-order analysis that generates an 18-factor solution. Through the empirical analysis, the paper presents its findings as an ICO marketplace stacked layer model. The model is comprised of four layers: (1) Trust; (2) Value exchange; (3) Automation; and (4) Applications to enable value exchange, and an era of new business models. The paper then presents an unbiased, unified entrepreneurial definition of the Blockchain technology usage.
Physical Activity, Gut Microbiota, and Genetic Background for Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

It is estimated that one in 100 children worldwide has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASD frequently suffer from gut dysbiosis and gastrointestinal issues, findings which possibly play a role in the pathogenesis and/or severity of their condition. Physical activity may have a positive effect on the composition of the intestinal microbiota of healthy adults. However, the effect of exercise both on the gastrointestinal problems and intestinal microbiota (and thus possibly on ASD) itself in affected children is unknown. In terms of understanding the physiopathology and manifestations of ASD, analysis of the gut–brain axis holds some promise. Here, we discuss the physiopathology of ASD in terms of genetics and microbiota composition, and how physical activity may be a promising non-pharmaceutical approach to improve ASD-related symptoms.
Mechanisms of persistent atrial fibrillation and recurrences within 12 months post-ablation: Non-invasive mapping with electrocardiographic imaging

Introduction Catheter ablation of persistent AF has not been consistently successful in terminating AF or preventing arrhythmia recurrences. Non-invasive Electrocardiographic Imaging (ECGI) can help to understand recurrences by mapping the mechanisms of pre-ablation AF and comparing them with the patterns of recurrent arrhythmias in the same patient. Methods Seventeen persistent AF patients underwent ECGI before their first catheter ablation. Time-domain activation maps and phase progression maps were obtained on the bi-atrial epicardium. Location of arrhythmogenic drivers were annotated on the bi-atrial anatomy. Activation and phase movies were examined to understand the wavefront dynamics during AF. Eight patients recurred within 12 months of ablation and underwent a follow-up ECGI. Driver locations and movies were compared for pre- and post-ablation AF. Results A total of 243 focal drivers were mapped during pre-ablation AF. 62% of the drivers were mapped in the left atrium (LA). The pulmonary vein region harbored most of the drivers (43%). 35% of the drivers were mapped in the right atrium (RA). 59% (10/17) and 53% (9/17) of patients had repetitive sources in the left pulmonary veins (LPV) and left atrial appendage (LAA), and the lower half of RA, respectively. All patients had focal drivers. 29% (5/17) of patients had macro-reentry waves. 24% (4/17) of patients had rotors. Activation patterns during persistent AF varied from single macro-reentry to complex activity with multiple simultaneous wavefronts in both atria, resulting in frequent wave collisions. A total of 76 focal driver activities were mapped in 7/8 patients during recurrence. 59% of the post-ablation AF drivers were mapped in the LA. The pulmonary vein region harbored 50% of total drivers. 39% of sources were mapped in the RA. AF complexity remained similar post-ablation. 58% (44/76) of pre-ablation sources persisted during recurrence. 38% (3/8) of patients had macro-reentry and one patient had rotors. Conclusion ECGI provides patient-specific information on mechanisms of persistent AF and recurrent arrhythmia. More than half pre-ablation sources repeated during post-ablation recurrence. This study provides direct evidence for drivers that persist days and months after the ablation procedure. Patient-tailored bi-atrial ablation is needed to successfully target persistent AF and prevent recurrence. ECGI can potentially predict recurrence and assist in choice of therapy.
Relationship between Oxygen Uptake Reserve and Heart Rate Reserve in Young Male Tennis Players: Implications for Physical Fitness Monitoring

The aims of this study were to (i) verify the relationship between reserve oxygen uptake (VOreserve) and reserve heart rate (HRreserve) in young male tennis players, and (ii) understand the relationship between oxygen uptake (VO2) measured at the end of a tennis drill and recovery heart rate (HRrecovery) after the tennis drill. Ten young male tennis players (16.64 ± 1.69 years; 62.36 ± 6.53 kg of body mass; 175.91 ± 5.26 cm of height) were recruited from the National Tennis Association. Players were instructed to perform a tennis drill based on an incremental intensity protocol. Afterward, three levels of intensity were used based on VO2reserve and HRreserve. A significant variance was observed between levels (VO2reserve and HRreserve = p < 0.001). VO2reserve presented a significant and high agreement with HRreserve. The mean data revealed non-significant differences (p > 0.05), a very high relationship of linear regression (R2 = 82.4%, p < 0.001), and high agreement in Bland Altman plots. VO2, at the highest level of intensity (>93%), presented a significant correlation with HRrecovery during the immediate 30 s after the drill (rs = 0.468, p = 0.028). Tennis coaches or instructors must be aware of the differences between monitoring or prescribing training intensities based on HRreserve or HRmax. They can also use HRrecovery for 30 s immediately after exercise to verify and understand the variation in their players’ cardiorespiratory capacities.
SGLT-2 Inhibitors in Cancer Treatment—Mechanisms of Action and Emerging New Perspectives

Simple Summary Despite significant advances in the treatment of cancer, it remains a major cause of death worldwide and new treatment options are constantly being sought. An interesting new group of antidiabetic drugs, called sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors have beneficial effects in patients with heart failure and slow the progression of renal failure. They have recently been shown to additionally exhibit anticancer effects in certain types of cancer. The mechanism of their anticancer action, however, is not yet fully understood. Research into understanding these mechanisms is ongoing and it is hoped that, in the future, this knowledge may be used to develop new cancer treatments using these drugs. The possibility of using this group of drugs in anticancer treatment seems very attractive, especially as they are already used in the treatment of diabetes and heart failure. This article presents the mechanisms of their anti-cancer action which are so far known. Abstract A new group of antidiabetic drugs, sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT-2 inhibitors), have recently been shown to have anticancer effects and their expression has been confirmed in many cancer cell lines. Given the metabolic reprogramming of these cells in a glucose-based model, the ability of SGLT-2 inhibitors to block the glucose uptake by cancer cells appears to be an attractive therapeutic approach. In addition to tumour cells, SGLT-2s are only found in the proximal tubules in the kidneys. Furthermore, as numerous clinical trials have shown, the use of SGLT-2 inhibitors is well-tolerated and safe in patients with diabetes and/or heart failure. In vitro cell culture studies and preclinical in vivo studies have confirmed that SGLT-2 inhibitors exhibit antiproliferative effects on certain types of cancer. However, the mechanisms of this action remain unclear. Even in those tumour cell types in which SGLT-2 is present, there is sometimes an SGLT-2-independent mechanism of anticancer action of this group of drugs. This article presents the current state of knowledge of the potential mechanisms of the anticancer action of SGLT-2 inhibitors and their possible future application in clinical oncology.
Suppression of Tomato Bacterial Wilt Incited by Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum Using Polyketide Antibiotic-Producing Bacillus spp. Isolated from Rhizospheric Soil

Bacillus spp. has the potential to control bacterial and fungal diseases of crops. In vitro study, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens DSBA-11 showed best to inhibit the growth of Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum as compared to Bacillus cereus JHTBS-7, B. pumilus MTCC-7092, B. subtilis DTBS-5 and B. licheniformis DTBL-6.Three primers sets from nucleotide sequences of polyketide antibiotic synthase genes viz., macrolactin, difficidin and bacillaene of B. amyloliquefaciens FZB42 were designed and standardized protocol for simultaneous detection of polyketide antibiotics-producing strains of Bacillus spp. by multiplex—PCR with products size of 792 bp, 705 bp and 616 bp respectively. All the strains of B. amyloliquefaciens contained three polyketide antibiotic synthase genes, and B. subtilis possessed difficidin and macrolactin, whereas B. cereus JHTBS-7, B. pumilus MTCC-7092 and B. licheniformis DTBL-6 did not contain any polyketide antibiotic genes. By using this technique, polyketide-producing strains of Bacillus spp. were screened within a short period with high accuracy. These polyketide synthase genes were cloned by using a T&A vector to study the role of these genes in producing antibiotics that suppressed the growth of R. pseudosolanacearum under both in vitro and in vivo conditions. Bio-efficacy of cloned products of these genes macrolactin, bacillaene, and difficidin along with parent strain B. amyloliquefaciens DSBA-11 inhibited the growth of R. pseudosolanacearum and formed 1.9 cm2, 1.9 cm2, 1.7 cm2 and 3.3 cm2 inhibition area under in vitro conditions respectively. Minimum bacterial wilt disease intensity (29.3%) with the highest biocontrol efficacy (57.72%) was found in tomato cv. Pusa Ruby (susceptible to wilt disease) was treated with B. amyloliquefaciens DSBA-11 followed by cloned products of difficidin and macrolactin under glasshouse conditions. Hence, the developed multiplex protocol might be helpful for screening polyketide antibiotics producing potential strains of Bacillus spp. from soil which can apply for managing the wilt disease of tomatoes. The polyketide antibiotics produced by bacteria might have a significant role suppression of R. pseudosolanacearum due to the disintegration of cells.
Nonlinear canonical analysis and independence tests

´´ Measures of association between two random variables r.v. that are symmetric nondecreasing functions of the canonical coefficients provided by the nonlinear canonical analysis of the r.v. ’s are studied. These measures can be used to characterize independence. Their estimators are obtained by estimating a suitable approximation to nonlinear canonical analysis. When some conditions ae satisfied, asymptotic distributions of the estimators, both under the independence hypothesis and under dependence, are given. A class of tests of independence with asymptotic level of significance can be investigated. 1. Introduction. Several measures of association between two random Ž. variables r.v. based on the canonical analysis of these r.v. ’s have been introduced in the literature, and a review of such measures can be found in Ž. Ž . Cramer and Nicewander 1979 and Lazraq and Cleroux 1988 . A general ´ Ž. enough study of these measures is proposed in Lin 1987 and, more recently, Ž. in Dauxois and Nkiet 1997 , where a global study of the induced tests is developed. In these works the measures considered are constructed using Ž. linear canonical analysis LCA of the r.v. ’s and, thus, characterize only lack of a linear relationship. It can be interesting to look for another class of measures of association which characterize independence. Ž. The properties of nonlinear canonical analysis NLCA suggest that such a class can be derived from this analysis, but there is little work in this direction. The canonical coefficients from NLCA have already been used for testing independence, but uniquely when the related random variables are Ž. categorical see, for instance, Tsai and Sen 1990 . That is restrictive because one knows that, in this particular case, NLCA is a LCA of suitable random vectors, and thus it suffices to use classical measures of association. Consequently, it appears that the use of NLCA is more interesting when the related random variables are not categorical. In this paper, we propose a class of measures of association between random variables with values in any measurable spaces, constructed using symmetric nondecreasing functions and the canonical coefficients derived from NLCA. The properties of these measures show that they are appropriate to characterize independence without any assumption on the distribution of
Implementation and Performance Evaluation of LoRaWAN in Real Environment of Agriculture

Low Power Wide Area Networks are designed with a focus on Internet of Things applications that demand a transmission in the order of kilometers. In this paper, we present a performance assessment of LoRa technology and the LoRaWAN communication protocol as a function of the distance between the nodes, and as a function of the spectral spread factor (SF). For the evaluation, we implemented two real monitoring applications for livestock and beekeeping. The systems allows users to follow the monitored data through the Internet. The experiments show that using SF at 12 reduced packet losses by 50% compared to SF at 7, even on greatest distances evaluated.
on Urologic

Procedure Appropriateness Category Relative Radiation Level US abdomen with IV contrast Usually Appropriate O MRI abdomen without and with IV contrast Usually Appropriate O CT abdomen without and with IV contrast Usually Appropriate ☢☢☢☢ US kidneys retroperitoneal May Be Appropriate O MRI abdomen without IV contrast May Be Appropriate O CT abdomen with IV contrast May Be Appropriate ☢☢☢ CT abdomen without IV contrast May Be Appropriate ☢☢☢ CTU without and with IV contrast May Be Appropriate ☢☢☢☢ Arteriography kidney Usually Not Appropriate ☢☢☢ Radiography intravenous urography Usually Not Appropriate ☢☢☢ Image-guided biopsy adrenal gland Usually Not Appropriate Varies MRU without and with IV contrast Usually Not Appropriate O
Port Congestion and Inventory Investment ∗

We create some of the first measures of US port congestion and provide firm-level evidence that port congestion is negatively associated with future inventory investment. Our findings are stronger for firms more exposed to port congestion and driven by all three inventory components: raw materials, work in process, and finished goods. Heightened port congestion is also associated with (1) lower future profitability, (2) increased future sales to major customers, and (3) managers issuing public earnings forecasts more frequently. We validate our results using both aggregate and port-specific congestion measures. Port congestion thus appears to be an important driver of inventory investment.
New CagL Amino Acid Polymorphism Patterns of Helicobacter pylori in Peptic Ulcer and Non-Ulcer Dyspepsia

Background and Objectives: Helicobacter pylori infection is associated with chronic gastritis, ulcers, and gastric cancer. The H. pylori Type 4 secretion system (T4SS) translocates the CagA protein into host cells and plays an essential role in initiating gastric carcinogenesis. The CagL protein is a component of the T4SS. CagL amino acid polymorphisms are correlated with clinical outcomes. We aimed to study the association between CagL amino acid polymorphisms and peptic ulcer disease (PUD) and non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD). Materials and Methods: A total of 99 patients (PUD, 46; NUD, 53) were enrolled and screened for H. pylori by qPCR from antrum biopsy samples. The amino acid polymorphisms of CagL were analyzed using DNA sequencing, followed by the MAFFT sequence alignment program to match the amino acid sequences. Results: Antrum biopsy samples from 70 out of 99 (70.7%) patients were found to be H. pylori DNA-positive. A positive band for cagL was detected in 42 out of 70 samples (PUD, 23; NUD, 19), and following this, these 42 samples were sequenced. In total, 27 different polymorphisms were determined. We determined three CagL amino acid polymorphism combinations, which were determined to be associated with PUD and NUD. Pattern 1 (K35/N122/V134/T175/R194/E210) was only detected in PUD patient samples and was related to a 1.35-fold risk (p = 0.02). Patterns 2 (V41/I134) and 3 (V41/K122/A171/I174) were found only in NUD patient samples and were linked to a 1.26-fold increased risk (p = 0.03). Conclusions: We observed three new patterns associated with PUD and NUD. Pattern 1 is related to PUD, and the other two patterns (Patterns 2 and 3) are related to NUD. The patterns that we identified include the remote polymorphisms of the CagL protein, which is a new approach. These patterns may help to understand the course of H. pylori infection.
Speaker recognition analysis using running autocorrelation function parameters.

The human brain's process associated with the recognition and identification of acoustic signals is regarded as the calculation of the distances between "sound vectors"; the ones listened in the present with the memorized vectors in previous listening. Matching vectors (minimal distance between them) would indicate sounds come from similar sound sources or same sound source. In this study, the statistical values of r-ACF (running Autocorrelation Function) microscopic parameters of 6 spoken words recordings (in Spanish) by different speakers were calculated, and the aforementioned vector's distances were constructed by using the distances between the r-ACF parameters, being able to predict the degree of similarity between the speakers.
A two-layer model to explain the thickness dependence of conductivity and thermoelectric power of semiconductor thin films and application of the model to PbTe thin films

A two‐layer model to explain the thickness dependence of conductivity and thermoelectric power of semiconducting thin films has been developed assuming that the film is a parallel combination of resistances of the three layers: The first is the interior ‘‘grain‐boundary’’ layer, and the other two, outer layers on opposite sides, whose conductivities are altered by the band bending (and is also affected by surface‐gas interactions). The equations obtained in this model lead to an inverse thickness dependence of both the conductivity and thermoelectric power of thin films. The model is applied to analyze the conductivity and thermoelectric variation with thickness of PbTe thin films and the parameters Ug, the energy dependence of the ‘‘grain‐boundary’’ mean free path lg, and σg the surface conductivity, have been evaluated.
The Illinois Intentional Tort Qualitative Dataset

We introduce the Illinois Intentional Tort Qualitative Dataset, a set of Illinois Common Law cases in Assault, Battery, Trespass, and Self-Defense, machine-translated into qualitative predicate representations. We discuss the cases involved, the natural language understanding system used to translate the cases into predicate logic, and validation measures that serve as performance baselines for future AI research using the dataset.
In-nest information ﬂow analysis of social ant colonies

Physical interactions between social insects are critical in the transfer of information about food, nest construction, and other alarm signals within the colony. Analysis of time-aggregated interaction networks among ants can reveal key insights to the inner workings of these communication system and eﬃciencies. Previous studies measure empirical interactions and create models to observe these interactions in petri dishes, but little is known about the structure of these networks below ground. Restriction of movement through tunnels and chambers of an ant nest may have an impact on the eﬃciency of information ﬂow. We propose an agent-based model to simulate ant behaviour within various nest topologies. We investigate the diﬀerences in above-ground and in-nest interaction network topologies and discuss the potentially beneﬁcial and detrimental features of ant nests to the formation of these networks.