Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From weapons to wirebonds: How global security drives innovation, supply and demand

In a world surrounded by the Internet of Things, full automation, instant on-demand, self-driving vehicles and 100% connectivity, the ability to develop and maintain security has increased exponentially. We can ill afford the attitude that, as we grow the global community, we can believe the better nature of man is one of harmony. Rather, the idea of connectivity breeds new types of threats, from local, regional, national, international, and most recently global terrorism, to classic, or traditional, conflicts, wars and proxies. The question gets to be, are these threats real, imagined, or contrived by sensationalism in the news media? Is ‘fake news’ really fake, partially fake, sometimes fake or is the claim simply a moniker to mask and confuse the public? Regardless of the answers, global security concerns are on the rise. From reality television of doomsday ‘preppers’, to the 24/7 saturation of real-time updates around the world, it is easy to see the direction the global community is moving towards. Self-protection in the new cold war has been trending upward. Therefore, innovation towards advanced technologies aimed to address this trend have increased significantly as well. In order to support the demands for these technologies, the supply base and a new supply chain model needs to be developed so that cycle time reduction and time to market, in this case, the defense market, will need to improve. This talk will cover topics ranging from an overview of the top U.S. Defense contractors and show examples of state of the art technologies developed to protect and defend the United States and its allies. Examples of global conflict trends will lead into the needs for a variety of technologies currently being developed and deployed to address the needs for global security. And finally a ‘call to arms’ of the global supply chain market will be made in order to provide maximum support to combat this increasing trend of terrorism and conflicts.
Translation and Psychometric Testing of the Chinese Version of the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness

Background: Mind–body interventions are used to alleviate physical and psychological symptoms. The multidimensional assessment of interoceptive awareness (MAIA), which is used to self-report the effects of mind–body interventions, is not currently available in Chinese. Purpose: This study aimed to translate the MAIA from English into Chinese (MAIA-C) and to examine the psychometric properties of the MAIA-C. Methods: This was a methodological study. The MAIA was translated forward and backward systematically, and content validity was assessed by a panel of experts. A convenience sample of adult participants with mind–body practice was recruited from social clubs in Taiwan. The MAIA-C was administered to study participants. Internal consistency and test–retest reliability were tested using Cronbach’s alpha and intraclass correlation coefficient. Construct validity was assessed in two ways: using confirmatory factor analysis and using the differences between the known groups to divide the sample into two groups of highly experienced and less experienced participants. Results: The complete data for the 294 participants were analyzed. The eight-factor structure of the MAIA-C was confirmed. Cronbach’s &agr; was . 91 overall and . 46–. 88 for the individual scales of the instrument. Intraclass correlation coefficient and composite reliability for the scales ranged from . 60 to . 85 and . 55 to . 87, respectively. The result of confirmatory factor analysis revealed a fair fit of the model to the data with a root mean square error of approximation of . 076 and a comparative fit index of . 95. Significant differences were found for the seven scales between the two groups. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: The MAIA-C showed acceptable reliability and validity in psychometric testing. Therefore, this scale may be used in studies that assess interoceptive awareness in Chinese-speaking populations who are undergoing mind–body interventions.
A D-A 1 S 7 122 JUL 2 218 ISRSTOIA

We have employed three tasks, developed by cognitive psychologists to study attention, with a population of six brain injured subjects in a rehabilitation program. Each of the tasks had been validated by studies with unilateral stroke patients and appear to provide a means of examining the relative efficiency of the two cerebral hemisphere when demands upon them are placed in conflict. We found that five of the six patients had imbalances between the two hemispheres. Four of them met our definition of attentional because the imbalance interacted with cues. The results show that the three tests converge on a common picture of cerebral imbalances in these brain injury patients and may relate to some aspects of their normal functioning.
Mary Ainsworth

Saul McLeod John Bowlby (1969) believed that attachment was an all or nothing process. However, research has shown that there are individual differences in attachment quality. Indeed, one of the primary paradigms in attachment theory is that of the security of an individual’s attachment (Ainsworth & Bell, 1970). Much research in psychology has focused on how forms of attachment differ among infants. For example, Schaffer and Emerson (1964) discovered what appeared to be innate differences in sociability in babies; some babies preferred cuddling more than others, from very early on, before much interaction had occurred to cause such differences. However, it was probably the psychologist Mary Ainsworth (1913 1999) who provided the most famous body of research offering explanations of individual differences in attachment. It’s easy enough to know when you are attached to someone because you know how you feel when you are apart from that person, and, being an adult, you can put your feelings into words and describe how it feels. However, most attachment research is carried out using infants and young children, so psychologists have to devise subtle ways of researching attachment styles, usually involving the observational method. Psychologist Mary Ainsworth devised an assessment technique called the Strange Situation Classification (SSC) in order to investigate how attachments might vary between children. The Strange Situation was devised by Ainsworth & Wittig (1969) and was based on Ainsworth’s previous Uganda (1967) and later Baltimore studies (Ainsworth et al., 1971, 1978).
High-Performance Digital Design Using Efficient Flip-Flop

The increase in power density of integrated circuits has given importance to area and power dissipation design measures. This paper enumerates an area, power efficient flip-flop design by analyzing different flip-flop topologies. This design comes with efficient structure to incorporate logic functions, with low area. The comparative power analysis helps to propose a flip-flop design that is suitable for high-performance digital designs where the area and power dissipation is of major concern. Tanner v7.0 tool is used for verifying the simulation results. The CMOS0. 18μm technology is used for performance comparisons of the proposed design.
Grasping 28.1 Summary 28.2 Introduction 28.3 Models and Definitions

This chapter introduces fundamental models of grasp analysis. The overall model is a coupling of models that define contact behavior with widely used models of rigid-body kinematics and dynamics. The contact model essentially boils down to the selection of components of contact force and moment that are transmitted through each contact. Mathematical properties of the complete model naturally give rise to five primary grasp types whose physical interpretations provide insight for grasp and manipulation planning. After introducing the basic model and types of grasps, this chapter focuses on the most important grasp characteristic: complete restraint. A grasp with complete restraint , prevents loss of contact and thus is very secure. Two primary restraint properties are form closure and force closure. A form closure grasp guarantees maintenance of contact as long as the links of the hand and the object are well-approximated as rigid and as long as the joint actuators are sufficiently strong. As will be seen, the primary difference between form closure and force closure grasps is the latter's reliance on contact friction. This translates into requiring fewer contacts to achieve force closure than form closure. Mechanical hands were developed to give robots the ability to grasp objects of varying geometric and physical properties. The first robotic hand designed for dexter-ous manipulation was the Salisbury Hand [1]. It has three three-jointed fingers; enough to control all six degrees of freedom of an object and the grip pressure. The fundamental grasp modeling and analysis done by Salis-bury provides a basis for grasp synthesis and dexterous manipulation research which continues today. Some of the most mature analysis techniques are embedded in the software GraspIt! [2]. GraspIt! contains models for several robot hands and provides tools for grasp selection, dynamic grasp simulation, and visualization. The goal of this chapter is to give a thorough understanding of the all-important grasp properties of form and force closure. This will be done through detailed derivations of grasp models and discussions of illustrative examples. For an in-depth historical perspective and a treasure-trove bibliography of papers addressing a wide range of topics in grasping, the reader is referred to [3]. A mathematical model of grasping must be capable of predicting the behavior of the hand and object under various loading conditions that may arise during grasping. Generally, the most desirable behavior is grasp maintenance in the face of unknown disturbing forces and moments applied to the object. …
Hypothalamic mTOR Signaling Mediates the Orexigenic Action of Ghrelin

Current evidence suggests that ghrelin, a stomach derived peptide, exerts its orexigenic action through specific modulation of Sirtuin1 (SIRT1)/p53 and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) pathways, which ultimately increase the expression of agouti-related protein (AgRP) and neuropeptide Y (NPY) in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus (ARC). However, there is a paucity of data about the possible action of ghrelin on alternative metabolic pathways at this level. Here, we demonstrate that ghrelin elicits a marked upregulation of the hypothalamic mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway. Of note, central inhibition of mTOR signaling with rapamycin decreased ghrelin’s orexigenic action and normalized the mRNA expression of AgRP and NPY, as well as their key downstream transcription factors, namely cAMP response-element binding protein (pCREB) and forkhead box O1 (FoxO1, total and phosphorylated). Taken together, these data indicate that, in addition to previous reported mechanisms, ghrelin also promotes feeding through modulation of hypothalamic mTOR pathway.
Genetic variation in key genes associated with statin therapy in the Azores Islands (Portugal) healthy population

Abstract Background: Inter-individual variation in response to statins (efficacy and toxicity) has been described and may be due to polymorphisms implicated in drug pharmacokinetics or pharmacodynamics. Aim: This study investigates clinically relevant pharmacogenes underlying statin response in 170 healthy Azoreans. Methods: Eight SNPs in candidate genes—HMGCR (rs3846662, rs17238540, rs17244841), CETP (rs708272), APOE (rs7412, rs429358) and SLCO1B1 (rs2306283, rs4149056)—were genotyped. Results: The allele frequencies were similar to those reported for European derived populations, excepting SLCO1B1 c.388A>G (rs2306283), which has a significant difference when compared with the HapMap CEU population (p = 1 × 10−8). The results of statin efficacy showed that 9.1% of Azoreans are APOE4 carriers. This allele has been associated with lower LDLc reduction from statin therapy and also higher LDLc levels at baseline. Regarding SLCO1B1, associated with statin toxicity, 1.8% of individuals have two reduced-function alleles (c.521CC). Conclusion: The results contribute to overcome the lack of knowledge regarding the frequency of pharmacogenetic SNPs and their corresponding haplotypes in targeted populations, such as Azores islands. Moreover, the present work constitutes an initial step to implementing pharmacogenomics in clinical practice where physicians could use a patient’s genetic make-up to optimize statin therapy, regarding efficiency and myopathy risk.
Gastric Neuroendocrine Tumors (G-Nets): Incidence, Prognosis and Recent Trend Toward Improved Survival

Background/Aims: Gastric neuroendocrine tumors (G-NETs) are uncommon neoplasms that can present with or without clinical symptoms. In this study, we evaluated the incidence, prognosis, and temporal trends of G-NETs. Methods: We analyzed all cases of G-NETs registered in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 1973 to 2014. Incidence was estimated by age and joinpoint analyses. Survival rates were calculated and survival trends over time were evaluated. Results: A total of 3740 eligible patients were enrolled in the study. G-NETs incidence increased from 0.31 per 1 000 000 patients in 1975 to 4.85 in 2014, with an annual percentage changes (APCs) of 8.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 7.7% to 10.21%, P < 0.001, t test (29) from 1975 to 2001 and 3.6% from 2002 to 2014 (95% CI= 2.3% to 4.9%, P < 0.001). For cases diagnosed between 1973 and 1982, five-year survival was 62.8% ± 7.0% (Standard error, SE) and increased to 86.7% ± 0.7% for cases diagnosed between 2003 and 2012 (P < 0.001). Years of diagnosis, gender, age at diagnosis, marital status, grade, tumor size, tumor stage, and surgery performed or not were the strongest predictors of worse survival in both univariate and multivariate analysis (P<0.05). Conclusion: G-NETs are uncommon neoplasms but the incidence is growing. Survival has improved in the past decades. Years of diagnosis, gender, age at diagnosis, marital status, grade, tumor size, tumor stage, and surgery status predict survival in patients with G-NETs.
Rapid surface functionalization of cotton fabrics by modified hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO

Abstract This study examined a simple and rapid hydrothermal approach for zinc oxide (ZnO) functional fabrics. ZnO-coated cotton fabrics were achieved by this hydrothermal. The surface morphology, crystalline structure, surface chemistry of the uncoated and coated cotton fabrics were investigated by scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffractometer, Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and Fourier transform Infra red spectroscopy, respectively. Ultraviolet properties and washing fastness of treated cotton fabric were also measured. The results indicated that the sizes of 100–500 nm spherical ZnO nanoparticles were successfully deposited on cotton fiber surface. These spherical ZnO nanoparticles were uncompleted crystal structure. Chemical bond between ZnO nanoparticles and cotton fiber was also observed. ZnO-coated cotton fabrics exhibited better ultraviolet-resistant properties than that of uncoated cotton fabrics. Washing resulted in a dramatic decrease in the UPF of ZnO-coated fabrics, but the UPF of coated fabrics was still up to 30.1 after 90 min of washing. All results suggest that this method had good potential in preparing ZnO functional textiles.
DNA barcoding reveals andropolymorphism in Aclerogamasus species Acari Parasitidae

Andropolymorphism, defined as discontinuous morphological variability in males, can lead to taxonomic confusion when different male morphs are determined and described as separate species. This study addresses this issue in two occasionally sympatric mite species Aclerogamasus similis (Willmann, 1953) and A. holzmannae (Micherdzi ski, 1969) collected in Poland. The females of these two taxa are morphologically indistinguishable but males are quite different, and could be either separate species or one species with two male morphs. We address this question by performing molecular assays, testing variation in a fragment of the mtDNA COI gene and the D2 region of 28S rDNA. Molecular analysis of populations revealed very low variation in the studied gene fragments. All sequences of the D2 region of 28S rDNA (size 375 bp) were identical. Only two COI haplotypes were found, differing by two out of 644 nucleotide positions (0.3% K2P distance). The variant haplotype was found in one A. similis male, and probably represents intraspecific variability. The results strongly suggest that all studied females and males belong to only one species with dimorphic males. This finding confirms some earlier opinions on synonymy of both species. Therefore, Aclerogamasus holzmannae (Micherdzi ski, 1969) should be regarded as a junior synonym of Aclerogamasus similis (Willmann, 1953). As andropolymorphism has been rarely observed in gamasid mites, we briefly discuss its possible origins and consequences.
A picture is worth a thousand words but how to organize thousands of pictures?

We live in a society where the large majority of the population has a camera-equipped smartphone. In addition, hard drives and cloud storage are getting cheaper and cheaper, leading to a tremendous growth in stored personal photos. Unlike photo collections captured by a digital camera, which typically are pre-processed by the user who organizes them into event-related folders, smartphone pictures are automatically stored in the cloud. As a consequence, photo collections captured by a smartphone are highly unstructured and because smartphones are ubiquitous, they present a larger variability compared to pictures captured by a digital camera. To solve the need of organizing large smartphone photo collections automatically, we propose here a new methodology for hierarchical photo organization into topics and topic-related categories. Our approach successfully estimates latent topics in the pictures by applying probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis, and automatically assigns a name to each topic by relying on a lexical database. Topic-related categories are then estimated by using a set of topic-specific Convolutional Neuronal Networks. To validate our approach, we ensemble and make public a large dataset of more than 8,000 smartphone pictures from 10 persons. Experimental results demonstrate better user satisfaction with respect to state of the art solutions in terms of organization.
Identifying precursory cancer lesions using temporal texture analysis

This paper describes a method for the temporal analysis of texture in colposcopy. The objective is to find temporal texture patterns in order to detect precursory cancer lesions analyzing colposcopy video frames. Preprocessing of the frames is necessary in order to deal with patient movement and non uniform illumination. We use a stabilization algorithm based in a homography and to eliminate incorrect transformations between frames. Illumination correction is done using a local pixel transformation based in the mean around a small window. Temporal reaction after acetic acid application in the cervix is evaluated through the use of a co-occurrence matrix in different regions of the cervix. The reaction is plotted and analyzed through time. Different patterns for normal and abnormal regions are found by this temporal texture analysis showing the possibility to detect important lesions. The proposed method uses standard colposcopy equipment and it was tested using sequences obtained from different patients.
Changes in the Distribution of Cocaine- and Amphetamine-Regulated Transcript-Containing Neural Structures in the Human Colon Affected by the Neoplastic Process

The present study analysed changes in the distribution pattern of cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) in the enteric nervous system (ENS) of the human colon challenged by adenocarcinoma invasion, using the double-labelling immunofluorescence technique. In control specimens, CART immunoreactivity was found in neurons of all studied plexuses, representing 30.1 ± 4.1%, 12.9 ± 5.2%, and 4.1 ± 1.3% of all neurons forming the myenteric plexus (MP), outer submucous plexus (OSP), and inner submucous plexus (ISP), respectively. Tumour growth into the colon wall caused an increase in the relative frequency of CART-like immunoreactive (CART-LI) neurons in enteric plexuses located in the vicinity of the infiltrating neoplasm (to 36.1 ± 6.7%, 32.7 ± 7.3% and 12.1 ± 3.8% of all neurons in MP, OSP and ISP, respectively). The density of CART-LI nerves within particular layers of the intestinal wall did not differ between control and adenocarcinoma-affected areas of the human colon. This is the first detailed description of the CART distribution pattern within the ENS during the adenocarcinoma invasion of the human colon wall. The obtained results suggest that CART probably acts as a neuroprotective factor and may be involved in neuronal plasticity evoked by the progression of a neoplastic process.
The Effect of Vitamins on Glaucoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: The aim of is to determine the association of vitamins with glaucoma by performing a systematic review and meta-analyses. Methods: Studies on the relation of vitamins and glaucoma published up to December 2017 were identified in the PubMed and Embase database. Data on vitamins (method of assessment), glaucoma (type and method of assessment), study characteristics and quality were recorded. In case of multiple studies for one nutrient a meta-analysis was performed. Results: A total of 629 articles were identified of which 36 were included in the systematic review. The meta-analysis included five of them (940 open-angle glaucoma (OAG) cases and 123,697 controls in total) and resulted in an odds ratio [95% confidence interval] (OR [95% CI]) of 0.58 [0.37–0.91] for dietary vitamin A, though heterogeneity was high (I2 = 51%). After omitting studies that contributed significantly to the heterogeneity, the pooled OR [95% CI] was 0.45 [0.30–0.68] for dietary vitamin A on OAG (I2 = 0%). For vitamin B1, C and E no significant association with OAG was found (OR [95% CI]: 0.84 [0.47–1.51]; 0.68 [0.38–1.22]; 0.95 [0.75–1.19]; respectively). However, after addressing heterogeneity, vitamin C showed a protective effect as well. Especially, foods high in these vitamins (e.g., dark green vegetables) were protective for OAG. Conclusions: Dietary intake of vitamin A and C showed a beneficial association with OAG; however, findings on blood levels of vitamins do not show a clear relation with OAG.
A similarity based approach for integrated Web caching and content replication in CDNs

Web caching and content replication techniques emerged to solve performance problems related to the Web. We propose a generic non-parametric heuristic method that integrates both techniques under a CDN. We provide experimentation showing that our method outperforms the so far separate implementations of Web caching and content replication. Moreover, we show that the performance improvement compared with an existing algorithm is significant. We test all these techniques in a simulation environment under a flash crowd event and a workload of a typical light-weighted CDN operation