Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A hybrid RABWC-STF method for eye-blink removal from EEG

In this paper, a hybrid method of the Robust Adaptive Beamforming based on Worst-case Performance Optimization (RABWC) and Space-Time-Frequency (STF) model is utilized for the eye-blink removal. RABWC is utilized to extract electrooculogram (EOG) signal and the STF model to provide an estimation of the steering vector corresponding to EOG for RABWC. Benefiting from the solution uniqueness of PARAFAC and the robustness of RABWC, this method can obtain a robust result without imposing irrational constraints.
Linguistic knowledge and complexity in an EBMT system based on translation patterns

An approach to Example-Based Machine Translation is presented which operates by extracting translation patterns from a bilingual corpus aligned at the level of the sentence. This is carried out using a language-neutral recursive machine-learning algorithm based on the principle of similar distributions of strings. The translation patterns extracted represent generalisations of sentences that are translations of each other and, to some extent, resemble transfer rules but with fewer constraints. The strings and variables, of which translations patterns are composed, are aligned in order to provide a more refined bilingual knowledge source, necessary for the recombination phase. A non-structural approach based on surface forms is error prone and liable to produce translation patterns that are false translations. Such errors are highlighted and solutions are proposed by the addition of external linguistic resources, namely morphological analysis and part-of-speech tagging. The amount of linguistic resources added has consequences for computational complexity and portability.
Semi‐Transparent Polymer Solar Cells with Excellent Sub‐Bandgap Transmission for Third Generation Photovoltaics

Semi-transparent organic photovoltaics are of interest for a variety of photovoltaic applications, including solar windows and hybrid tandem photovoltaics. The figure shows a photograph of our semi-transparent solar cell, which has a power conversion efficiency of 5.0%, with an above bandgap transmission of 34% and a sub-bandgap transmission of 81%.
Expanding access in high-quality respiratory and critical care medicine research: BMJ Open Respiratory Research

We are delighted to introduce BMJ Open Respiratory Research , an online peer-reviewed open access respiratory medicine journal published by the BMJ in partnership with the British Thoracic Society . The journal is dedicated to rapid publication of high-quality research from all areas of respiratory medicine, including respiratory science and critical care. Publication bias and a preoccupation with journal impact factor mean that currently available research findings in respiratory medicine are likely to represent only the ‘tip of the iceberg’, with many more preliminary, small-scale or negative studies remaining unavailable to the research community. Open access journals have their proponents1 ,2 and detractors3 , …
Evaluation of UV inhibitors in polyester gelcoats

The performance of several UV inhibitors (light stabilizers and hindered amine light stabilizers) was investigated in a polyester gelcoat. The color change and the gloss retention were evaluated using several known accelerated lab test instruments and procedures, against real-life outdoor weathering. Correlation between these methods and the real-life data was suggested, along with a proposed model of the whole weathering process: upon outdoor exposure the color change (yellowing) occurs first, then after at least one year of weathering, the process of gloss loss also starts. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Adv Polym Techn 22: 365–372, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/adv.10063
Pleiotropic Effects of Antiarrhythmic Agents: Dronedarone in the Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation remains the most common arrhythmia in clinical practice. Dronedarone is an antiarrhythmic drug for the maintenance of sinus rhythm in patients with atrial fibrillation. Dronedarone is an amiodarone derivative developed to reduce the number of extracardiovascular side effects. Dronedarone has undergone extensive experimental and clinical testing during the last decade. On the aggregate, these studies have highlighted a complex set of pleiotropic actions that may contribute to dronedarone's antiarrhythmic effects. In this review, we summarize the clinical studies that have evaluated dronedarone and provide an overview of dronedarone's electrophysiological and nonelectrophysiological pleiotropic actions.
MaxFirst for MaxBRkNN

The MaxBRNN problem finds a region such that setting up a new service site within this region would guarantee the maximum number of customers by proximity. This problem assumes that each customer only uses the service provided by his/her nearest service site. However, in reality, a customer tends to go to his/her k nearest service sites. To handle this, MaxBRNN can be extended to the MaxBRkNN problem which finds an optimal region such that setting up a service site in this region guarantees the maximum number of customers who would consider the site as one of their k nearest service locations. We further generalize the MaxBRkNN problem to reflect the real world scenario where customers may have different preferences for different service sites, and at the same time, service sites may have preferred targeted customers. In this paper, we present an efficient solution called MaxFirst to solve this generalized MaxBRkNN problem. The algorithm works by partitioning the space into quadrants and searches only in those quadrants that potentially contain an optimal region. During the space partitioning, we compute the upper and lower bounds of the size of a quadrant's BRkNN, and use these bounds to prune the unpromising quadrants. Experiment results show that MaxFirst can be two to three orders of magnitude faster than the state-of-the-art algorithm.
Flash Sintering of Anode–Electrolyte Multilayers for SOFC Applications

We show that multilayer green tapes constituted from sandwiched layers of NiO–zirconia anode and cubic zirconia electrolyte can be sintered below 1000°C in a few seconds under the influence of a DC electric field. The sintering yields a dense electrolyte layer with minor closed porosity, and an anode layer with open porosity, and, most importantly, a multilayer that is largely devoid of defects and delamination.
Multiscale Modeling of Inclusions and Precipitation Hardening in Metal Matrix Composites: Application to Advanced High-Strength Steels

AbstractThe strengthening effect of precipitates in metals is investigated within a multiscale approach that utilizes models of various length scales; namely, molecular mechanics (MM), discrete dislocation dynamics (DD), and an equivalent inclusion method (EIM). In particular, precipitates are modeled as particles whose stress fields interact with dislocations. The stress field resulting from the elastic mismatch between the particles and the matrix is accounted for by using the EIM, whereas the MM method is employed to develop rules for the DD method for short range interactions between a single dislocation and an inclusion. The DD method is used to predict the strength of the composite structure resulting from the interaction between ensembles of dislocations and particles. As an application to this method, the mechanical behavior of advanced high strength steel is investigated and the results are compared to the experimental data published in previous studies. The results show that the finely dispersiv.
The prevalence and pattern of HPV-16 immunostaining in uterine cervical carcinomas in Ethiopian women: a pilot study

Introduction Cancer of the cervix uteri is the second most common cancer among women worldwide. The association of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection with cervical carcinogenesis is well documented. This is a pilot study aiming to studying the prevalence and the pattern of Human Papilloma Virus Type 16 (HPV16) by immunostaining in the tissues of cervical carcinomas of Ethiopian women. Methods 20 specimens of uterine cervical carcinomas were studied histopathologically and immunohistochemically for HPV16. Results Histologically the specimens were classified as: Ten cases were Non Keratinized Squamous cell carcinoma (NKSCC), six cases were Keratinized Squamous Cell Carcinoma (KSCC) and four cases were Adenocarcinoma (ADC). Immunohistochemistry study showed positivity in eleven cases (55%); seven cases (35%) were non-keratinized squamous cell carcinoma; three cases (15%) were keratinized squamous cell carcinoma and one case (5%) belonged to the adenocarcinomas. Conclusion This study reveals a significant detection of HPV in Ethiopian women by the use of advanced techniques such as Immunohistochemistry (IHC). The data of this study suggested that the marked expression of the HPV 16 was in the less differentiated uterine cervix carcinomas.
Belief Optimization for Binary Networks: A Stable Alternative to Loopy Belief Propagation

We present a novel inference algorithm for arbitrary, binary, undirected graphs. Unlike loopy belief propagation, which iterates fixed point equations, we directly descend on the Bethe free energy. The algorithm consists of two phases, first we update the pairwise probabilities, given the marginal probabilities at each unit, using an analytic expression. Next, we update the marginal probabilities, by following the negative gradient of the Bethe free energy. Both steps are guaranteed to decrease the Bethe free energy, and since it is lower bounded, the algorithm is guaranteed to converge to a local minimum. We also show that the Bethe free energy is equal to the TAP free energy up to second order in the weights. In experiments we confirm that when belief propagation converges it usually finds identical solutions as our belief optimization method. The stable nature of belief optimization makes it ideally suited for learning graphical models from data.
Evaluation of a topical cyclosporine A prodrug on corneal graft rejection in rats.

PURPOSE To assess the efficacy of a topical cyclosporine A (CsA), water-soluble prodrug, for promoting the survival of allogenic rat corneal grafts after penetrating keratoplasty (PKP). METHODS Corneas of Brown-Norway rats (donors) were transplanted to Lewis rats (recipients). Transplanted rats were divided in three treatment groups: group I (PBS) and group II (0.26% Debio088) received drops five times per day. Group III received a daily intramuscular CsA injection (10 mg/kg/day). Blood CsA concentrations were measured on days 2 and 14. On day 4, 10, 13 after PKP, grafts were scored for corneal transparency, edema and extent of neovascularization. An opacity score of greater than or equal to 3 was considered as a nonreversible graft rejection process. On day 14, the experimental eyes were processed for histology. RESULTS On day 13, 12 of the 18 corneal transplants (67%) in group I showed irreversible graft rejection. Three of 18 transplants (19%) in group II and 5 of 16 transplants (28%) in group III showed irreversible graft rejection (p=0.013/p=0.019, OR=0.14/0.06 versus vehicle). Each mean clinical score for edema, opacity, and neovessels in group II were significantly lower than those of the grafts in group I (respectively p=0.010, p=0.013, p=0.024) and III except for neovessels (respectively p=0.002, p=0.001, p=0.057). Histology confirmed the clinical results. The mean CsA blood levels for groups II and III were, respectively 54+/-141 mug/l and 755+/-319 mug/l on day 2 and 14+/-34 mug/l and 1318+/-463 mug/l on day 14. CONCLUSIONS Debio088 CsA prodrug drops given five times daily are as effective as intramuscular injection of 10 mg/kg/day for the prevention of acute corneal graft rejection in rats.
High Activity Photocatalyst Powder Formed by Three Ceramic Oxides

A Photocatalyst ceramic powder that presented high photoactivity based on TiO2 modified with 25% molar of SnO2 and up to 5% molar of Ag2O was obtained in the present work. The aforementioned ceramic powder was obtained using all commercial oxides as well as the oxides mixture technique. The powders were ground in high energy mill for one hour with subsequent thermal treatment at 400°C for four hours. They were, furthermore, characterized using surface area of around 6m2/g, where the X-Ray diffraction results provided evidence for the presence of anatase and rutile phases, known to be typical characteristics of both the TiO2 and SnO2 used. During the thermal treatment, Ag2O was reduced to metallic silver. The photodegradation rehearsals were carried out using a 0.01 mmol/L Rhodamine B solution in a 100mg/L photocatalyst suspension in a 500ml beaker, which was irradiated with 4W germicide Ultraviolet light of 254nm. In addition, samples were removed after duration of about 10 minutes to an hour, where they were analyzed thoroughly in UV-vis spectrophotometer. The analysis of the results indicated that for the compositions up to 2.5% molar of Ag2O, the photoactivity was found to be greater than that of Degussa P25 photocatalyst powder, and as such it was then used as a reference. Taking into account 90% degradation of Rhodamine B, a duration period of 11 minutes was obtained for the developed photocatalyst powder compared to the 38 minutes observed for the Degussa P25. FEG-SEM micrographies enabled the verification of the morphology as well as the interaction of the oxide particles with the metallic silver, which led us to propose a model for the increase in photoactivity observed in the photocatalyst powder under investigation.
THE CILIARY NECKLACE

Cilia, primarily of the lamellibranch gill (Elliptio and Mytilus), have been examined in freeze-etch replicas. Without etching, cross fractures rarely reveal the 9 + 2 pattern, although suggestions of ninefold symmetry are present. In etched preparations, longitudinal fractures through the matrix show a triplet spoke alignment corresponding to the spoke periodicity seen in thin sections. Dynein rows can be visualized along the peripheral microtubules in some preparations. Fracture faces of the ciliary membrane are smooth with few membrane particles, except in the regions adjacent to the basal plate. In the transition region below the plate, a unique particle arrangement, the ciliary necklace, is found. In the Elliptio gill, on fracture face A the necklace is comprised of three well-defined rows or strands of membrane particles that encircle the ciliary shaft. The rows are scalloped and each scallop corresponds to a peripheral doublet microtubule. In thin sections at the level of these particles, a series of champagne-glass structures link the microtubular doublets to the ciliary membrane. The ciliary necklace and this "membrane-microtubule" complex may be involved in energy transduction or the timing of ciliary beat. Comparative studies show that these features are present in all somatic cilia examined including those of the ameboflagellate Tetramitus, sea urchin embryos, rat trachea, and nonmotile cilia of cultured chick embryo fibroblasts. The number of necklace strands differs with each species. The necklace has not been found in rat or sea urchin sperm.
Shear Strength Model for FRP Shear-Reinforced Concrete Beams

In the present study, a unified shear design method was developed to evaluate the shear strength of concrete beams with and without FRP shear reinforcement. The contributions of FRP and concrete on shear strength were defined separately. By comparing the current design method calculated results with the existing test results, it was found that Triantafillou model shows a reliable prediction of FRP effective strain and FRP shear strength contributions. The concrete shear strength contribution was defined by the strain-based shear strength model developed in the previous study. The shear strength of concrete compression zone was evaluated based on the material failure criteria of the concrete subjected to the compressive normal and shear stresses. The proposed strength model was verified by comparing its prediction results to prior test results. The comparisons showed that the proposed method accurately predicts the strengths of the test specimens for both FRP shear reinforced and unreinforced concrete beams.
Television Viewing Time and Mortality: The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab)

Background— Television viewing time, the predominant leisure-time sedentary behavior, is associated with biomarkers of cardiometabolic risk, but its relationship with mortality has not been studied. We examined the associations of prolonged television viewing time with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, and non-CVD/noncancer mortality in Australian adults. Methods and Results— Television viewing time in relation to subsequent all-cause, CVD, and cancer mortality (median follow-up, 6.6 years) was examined among 8800 adults ≥25 years of age in the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab). During 58 087 person-years of follow-up, there were 284 deaths (87 CVD deaths, 125 cancer deaths). After adjustment for age, sex, waist circumference, and exercise, the hazard ratios for each 1-hour increment in television viewing time per day were 1.11 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03 to 1.20) for all-cause mortality, 1.18 (95% CI, 1.03 to 1.35) for CVD mortality, and 1.09 (95% CI, 0.96 to 1.23) for cancer mortality. Compared with a television viewing time of <2 h/d, the fully adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause mortality were 1.13 (95% CI, 0.87 to 1.36) for ≥2 to <4 h/d and 1.46 (95% CI, 1.04 to 2.05) for ≥4 h/d. For CVD mortality, corresponding hazard ratios were 1.19 (95% CI, 0.72 to 1.99) and 1.80 (95% CI, 1.00 to 3.25). The associations with both cancer mortality and non-CVD/noncancer mortality were not significant. Conclusions— Television viewing time was associated with increased risk of all-cause and CVD mortality. In addition to the promotion of exercise, chronic disease prevention strategies could focus on reducing sitting time, particularly prolonged television viewing.
Information retrieval model based on graph comparison

We propose a new method for Information Retrieval (IR) based on graph vertices comparison. The main goal of this method is to enhance the core IR-process of finding relevant documents in a collection of documents according to a user’s needs. The method we propose is based on graph comparison and involves recursive computation of similarity. In the framework this approach, documents, queries and indexing terms are viewed as vertices of a bipartite graph where edges go from a document or a query – first node type- to an indexing term – second node type-. Edges reflect the link that exists between documents or queries on the one hand and indexing terms on the other hand. In our model, graph edge settings reflect the tf-ifd paradigm. The proposed similarity measure instantiates and extends this principle, stipulating that the resemblance of two items or objects can be computed using the similarities of the items to which they are related. Our method also takes into account the concept of similarity propagation over graph edges. Experiments conducted using four small sized IR test collections (TREC 2004 Novelty Track, CISI, Cranfield & Medline) demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach and its feasibility as long as the graph size does not exceed a few thousand nodes. The experiment’s results show that our method outperforms the vector-based model. Our method actually highly outperforms the vector-based cosine model, sometimes by more than doubling the precision, up to the top sixty returned documents. The computational complexity issue is resituated in the context of MAC-FAC approaches – many are called but few are chosen. More precisely, we suggest that our method can be successfully used as a FAC stage combined with a fast and computationally cheap method used as a MAC stage.
Auditory interhemispheric transfer deficits, hearing difficulties, and brain magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities in children with congenital aniridia due to PAX6 mutations.

OBJECTIVE To assess auditory processing, hearing difficulties, and brain magnetic resonance (MR) imaging abnormalities in children with panocular developmental aniridia due to PAX6 mutations. DESIGN Case-control study. SETTING Great Ormond Street Hospital and Institute of Child Health. PARTICIPANTS Eleven case subjects with PAX6 mutations and 11 age-matched and sex-matched healthy control subjects. INTERVENTIONS All subjects completed a structured hearing questionnaire, baseline audiometry, and central auditory tests (dichotic speech tests, frequency and duration pattern tests, and gaps-in-noise test). Case subjects underwent brain MR imaging with volumetry, and the results were compared with those of age-matched and sex-matched healthy control subjects randomly selected from the Radiology and Physics Unit database. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Brain MR imaging, central auditory test results, and questionnaire scores. RESULTS The corpus callosum area was significantly smaller on brain volumetry in the cases compared with the controls. The anterior commissure was small in 7 cases and was normal in 3 cases on visual inspection of brain MR images (conducted in 10 of 11 cases). Audiograms showed no abnormalities in any of the children. Central auditory test results were normal in all the controls and were abnormal in all the cases except for 1 case with a pattern of abnormalities consistent with reduced auditory interhemispheric transfer. The cases had greater difficulty localizing sound and understanding speech in noise than the controls. CONCLUSIONS Despite normal audiograms, children with PAX6 mutations may experience auditory interhemispheric transfer deficits and have difficulty localizing sound and understanding speech in noise. In view of their additional visual difficulties, thorough audiological evaluation of these children is indicated to initiate appropriate management.
International Journal of Health Geographics Open Access Current Practices in Spatial Analysis of Cancer Data: Data Characteristics and Data Sources for Geographic Studies of Cancer

The use of spatially referenced data in cancer studies is gaining in prominence, fueled by the development and availability of spatial analytic tools and the broadening recognition of the linkages between geography and health. We provide an overview of some of the unique characteristics of spatial data, followed by an account of the major types and sources of data used in the spatial analysis of cancer, including data from cancer registries, population data, health surveys, environmental data, and remote sensing data. We cite numerous examples of recent studies that have used these data, with a focus on etiological research.
Signal processing with factor graphs: examples

Graphical models such as factor graphs allow to model complex systems and help to derive practical detection/estimation algorithms as message passing in the graph. In this paper, we outline three examples of on-going work of this type. For an introduction to factor graphs, we refer to F. R. Kschischang (Feb. 2001) and H. A. Loeliger (Jan. 2004). We use the notation of H. A. Loeliger (Jan. 2004).