Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using a composite flow law to model deformation in the NEEM deep
ice core, Greenland: Part 2 the role of grain size and premelting on
ice deformation at high homologous temperature

Abstract. The ice microstructure in the lower part of the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (NEEM) ice core consists of relatively fine grained glacial ice with a single maximum crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) alternated by much coarser grained Eemian ice with a partial girdle type of CPO. In this study, the grain size sensitive (GSS) composite flow law of Goldsby and Kohlstedt (2001) was used to study the effects of grain size and premelting on strain rate in the lower part of the NEEM ice core. The results show that the strain rates predicted in the fine grained glacial layers are about an order of magnitude higher than in the much coarser grained Eemian layers. The dominant deformation mechanisms between the layers is also different with basal slip accommodated by grain boundary sliding (GBS-limited creep) being the dominant deformation mechanism in the glacial layers, while GBS-limited creep and dislocation creep (basal slip accommodated by non-basal slip) contribute both roughly equally to bulk strain in the coarse grained layers. Due to the large difference in microstructure between the impurity-rich glacial ice and the impurity-depleted Eemian ice at premelting temperatures (T>262 K), it is expected that the fine grained layers deform mainly by simple shear at high strain rates, while the coarse grained layers are relatively stagnant. The difference in microstructure, and consequently in viscosity, between glacial and interglacial ice at temperatures just below the melting point can have important consequences for ice dynamics close to the bedrock.
A Two-Stage Maximum Entropy Prior of Location Parameter with a Stochastic Multivariate Interval Constraint and Its Properties

This paper proposes a two-stage maximum entropy prior to elicit uncertainty regarding a multivariate interval constraint of the location parameter of a scale mixture of normal model. Using Shannon’s entropy, this study demonstrates how the prior, obtained by using two stages of a prior hierarchy, appropriately accounts for the information regarding the stochastic constraint and suggests an objective measure of the degree of belief in the stochastic constraint. The study also verifies that the proposed prior plays the role of bridging the gap between the canonical maximum entropy prior of the parameter with no interval constraint and that with a certain multivariate interval constraint. It is shown that the two-stage maximum entropy prior belongs to the family of rectangle screened normal distributions that is conjugate for samples from a normal distribution. Some properties of the prior density, useful for developing a Bayesian inference of the parameter with the stochastic constraint, are provided. We also propose a hierarchical constrained scale mixture of normal model (HCSMN), which uses the prior density to estimate the constrained location parameter of a scale mixture of normal model and demonstrates the scope of its applicability.
Maternal fetal/placental interactions and abnormal pregnancy outcomes.

Cytotrophoblast cells from the placenta invade the maternal spiral arteries during normal pregnancy. This results in a striking increase in luminal diameter and causes the vessels to lose their smooth muscle enabling the expansion of vascular capacity necessary to support fetal growth. Preeclampsia, growth restriction, recurrent abortion, and preterm birth in many cases are caused by abnormal implantation with failure of this process. Of these implantation abnormalities, preeclampsia is well known to be associated with later life cardiovascular disease.1,2 Furthermore, several persistent metabolic and cardiovascular differences are present in women with preeclamptic compared with normal pregnancies. The data relating the other implantation disorders to later life cardiovascular diseases are less compelling. It is possible, however, in large population studies, to document increased cardiovascular mortality in women with pregnancies complicated by these disorders.1,3 In this issue of Hypertension , Germain et al4 clearly demonstrate that similar abnormalities of endothelial function are present 11 to 27 months postpartum in women who had previous pregnancies complicated not only by preeclampsia but also by recurrent abortion. There is reduced flow-induced endothelial-mediated vasodilatation, reduced circulating NO, and higher cholesterol in both groups. They present the reasonable conclusion that endothelial dysfunction may predispose to abnormal implantation and incomplete placental bed vascular remodeling. This is counter to an idea that I have previously advanced, including in a recent review in this journal.5 The concept of a 2-stage model of preeclampsia with the first stage being abnormal implantation and placental bed vascular remodeling and the second the maternal syndrome was presented. In it, it was posited that abnormal …
Is Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) Based Radio Communication an Unexploited Area?

We compare the technique of using the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of radio waves for generating multiple channels in a radio communication scenario with traditional multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) communication methods. We demonstrate that, for certain array configurations in free space, traditional MIMO theory leads to eigen-modes identical to the OAM states. From this we conclude that communicating over the sub-channels given by OAM states is a subset of the solutions offered by MIMO, and therefore does not offer any additional gains in capacity.
Geometry-aware bases for shape approximation

We introduce a new class of shape approximation techniques for irregular triangular meshes. Our method approximates the geometry of the mesh using a linear combination of a small number of basis vectors. The basis vectors are functions of the mesh connectivity and of the mesh indices of a number of anchor vertices. There is a fundamental difference between the bases generated by our method and those generated by geometry-oblivious methods, such as Laplacian-based spectral methods. In the latter methods, the basis vectors are functions of the connectivity alone. The basis vectors of our method, in contrast, are geometry-aware since they depend on both the connectivity and on a binary tagging of vertices that are "geometrically important" in the given mesh (e.g., extrema). We show that, by defining the basis vectors to be the solutions of certain least-squares problems, the reconstruction problem reduces to solving a single sparse linear least-squares problem. We also show that this problem can be solved quickly using a state-of-the-art sparse-matrix factorization algorithm. We show how to select the anchor vertices to define a compact effective basis from which an approximated shape can be reconstructed. Furthermore, we develop an incremental update of the factorization of the least-squares system. This allows a progressive scheme where an initial approximation is incrementally refined by a stream of anchor points. We show that the incremental update and solving the factored system are fast enough to allow an online refinement of the mesh geometry
Juxta-Cat: a JXTA-based platform for distributed computing

In this paper we present a JXTA-based platform, called Juxta-CAT, which is an effort to use the JXTA architecture to build a job execution-sharing distributed environment. The Juxta-CAT platform has been deployed in a large-scale, distributed and heterogeneous P2P network, based on open JXTA protocols. The goal of our platform is to create a shared Grid where client peers can submit their tasks in the form of java programs stored on signed jar files and are remotely solved on the nodes of the platform. Thus, the main goal of our platform is giving direct access to resources and sharing of the computing resources of nodes, in contrast to other well-known P2P systems that only share hard disk contents.The architecture of our platform is made up of two types of peers: common client peers and broker peers. The former can create and submit their requests using a GUI-based application while the later are the administrators of the Grid, which are in charge of efficiently assigning client requests to the Grid nodes and notify the results to the owner's requests. To assure an efficient use of resources, brokers use an allocation algorithm, which can be viewed as a price-based economic model, to determine the best candidate node to process each new received petition. The implementation and design of peers, groups, job and presence discovery, pipe-based messaging, etc. are developed using the latest updated JXTA libraries (currently release 2.3.7) and JDK 1.5 version.Several types of applications arising from different fields such as scientific calculations, simulations, data mining, etc. can be solved in Juxta-CAT. To create a suitable demo scenario and test the proposed platform, we have joined and used the PlanetLab platform (http://www.planet-lab.org/). Juxta-CAT Project and its official web site have been hosted in Java.NET community at https://juxtacat.dev. java.net.
An Analysis on the Willingness of Settling by the Convenience of Daily Activity in Middle-Mountainous Area

人口減少や市町村合併に伴い,地方都市の中心市街地 から離れた縁辺部や中山間地域では,買い物や医療サー ビス等の様々な生活関連サービス拠点が,合併後の行政 拠点周辺に立地する傾向にある. その結果,合併前はそ れぞれ異なる市町村であった新市町村内の地区間で,生 活利便性の格差が拡大している 2 1 . 従来の中山間地域 施策は,道路整備や交通サービスの改善 4 3 によって, 生活利便性の市町村間格差の解消と定住人口の確保が図 られてきた. しかし,これらの施策は,地域内の人口密 度が低い地域ではコストが嵩むため 5 ,今後自治体の歳 入減少が見込まれることを考慮すると,継続が困難であ る. 地域の持続性を高めるためには,特に市町村合併に よって低密度化が進んだ新市町村に対して,中長期的な 観点から住民の居住地分布の再編を視野に入れた,幅広 い施策の検討が必要である. 本研究は,合併によって広域化した地方都市や中山間 地域において,居住地再編施策を検討するため,現在の 住民の居住継続意向に及ぼす要因を明らかにする. 具体 的には,生活関連サービスの充足先や日常生活活動の利 便性の実態を踏まえて,個人属性,居住継続理由,およ び居住継続意向との関連を統計的に分析する. 以下,5 章では住民による生活利便性の評価構造,6章では個人 属性と居住継続理由との関連,7章では生活利便性およ び居住継続理由と居住継続意向との関連を分析し,それ らの結果を踏まえて8章で今後の中山間地域の居住地再 編施策について考察する. 2. 既往研究のレビュー
Markup in Engineering Design: A Discourse

Today’s engineering companies are facing unprecedented competition in a global market place. There is now a knowledge intensive shift towards whole product lifecycle support, and collaborative environments. It has become particularly important to capture information, knowledge and experiences about previous design and following stages during their product lifecycle, so as to retrieve and reuse such information in new and follow-on designs activities. Recently, with the rapid development and adoption of digital technologies, annotation and markup are becoming important tools for information communication, retrieval and management. Such techniques are being increasingly applied to an array of applications and different digital items, such as text documents, 2D images and 3D models. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of recent research in markup for engineering design, including a number of core markup languages and main markup strategies. Their applications and future utilization in engineering design, including multi-viewpoint of product models, capture of information and rationale across the whole product lifecycle, integration of engineering design processes, and engineering document management, are comprehensively discussed.
Target Existence Based MHT

In a cluttered environment, measurements originate not only from the objects being tracked, but also from spurious sources. The number of existing objects (targets) to be tracked is also unknown. The Multi-Hypotheses Tracking (MHT) filter is generally considered to be the "optimal" n-scan target tracking filter in such a multi-target cluttered environment. This paper introduces a new MHT filter based on the target existence. The probability that a target exists is estimated, and the estimate of the target kinematic state is subsequently conditioned on target existence. False track discrimination uses the probability of target existence as the track quality measure. This approach simplifies the structure of the algorithm and reduces complexity. A simplified version of the algorithm, which decouples new track hypotheses from the measurement-to-existing-track allocations is also presented. A simulation study shows the effectiveness of this approach in an environment of heavy and non-uniform clutter, with multiple maneuvering targets with crossing trajectories.
Digital Ocular Fundus Imaging: A Review

Ocular fundus imaging plays a key role in monitoring the health status of the human eye. Currently, a large number of imaging modalities allow the assessment and/or quantification of ocular changes from a healthy status. This review focuses on the main digital fundus imaging modality, color fundus photography, with a brief overview of complementary techniques, such as fluorescein angiography. While focusing on two-dimensional color fundus photography, the authors address the evolution from nondigital to digital imaging and its impact on diagnosis. They also compare several studies performed along the transitional path of this technology. Retinal image processing and analysis, automated disease detection and identification of the stage of diabetic retinopathy (DR) are addressed as well. The authors emphasize the problems of image segmentation, focusing on the major landmark structures of the ocular fundus: the vascular network, optic disk and the fovea. Several proposed approaches for the automatic detection of signs of disease onset and progression, such as microaneurysms, are surveyed. A thorough comparison is conducted among different studies with regard to the number of eyes/subjects, imaging modality, fundus camera used, field of view and image resolution to identify the large variation in characteristics from one study to another. Similarly, the main features of the proposed classifications and algorithms for the automatic detection of DR are compared, thereby addressing computer-aided diagnosis and computer-aided detection for use in screening programs.
Network‐ and attribute‐based classifiers can prioritize genes and pathways for autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disability

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of related neurodevelopmental disorders with significant combined prevalence (∼1%) and high heritability. Dozens of individually rare genes and loci associated with high‐risk for ASD have been identified, which overlap extensively with genes for intellectual disability (ID). However, studies indicate that there may be hundreds of genes that remain to be identified. The advent of inexpensive massively parallel nucleotide sequencing can reveal the genetic underpinnings of heritable complex diseases, including ASD and ID. However, whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS) provides an embarrassment of riches, where many candidate variants emerge. It has been argued that genetic variation for ASD and ID will cluster in genes involved in distinct pathways and protein complexes. For this reason, computational methods that prioritize candidate genes based on additional functional information such as protein–protein interactions or association with specific canonical or empirical pathways, or other attributes, can be useful. In this study we applied several supervised learning approaches to prioritize ASD or ID disease gene candidates based on curated lists of known ASD and ID disease genes. We implemented two network‐based classifiers and one attribute‐based classifier to show that we can rank and classify known, and predict new, genes for these neurodevelopmental disorders. We also show that ID and ASD share common pathways that perturb an overlapping synaptic regulatory subnetwork. We also show that features relating to neuronal phenotypes in mouse knockouts can help in classifying neurodevelopmental genes. Our methods can be applied broadly to other diseases helping in prioritizing newly identified genetic variation that emerge from disease gene discovery based on WES and WGS. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Velocity of Lordosis Angle during Spinal Flexion and Extension

The importance of functional parameters for evaluating the severity of low back pain is gaining clinical recognition, with evidence suggesting that the angular velocity of lordosis is critical for identification of musculoskeletal deficits. However, there is a lack of data regarding the range of functional kinematics (RoKs), particularly which include the changing shape and curvature of the spine. We address this deficit by characterising the angular velocity of lordosis throughout the thoracolumbar spine according to age and gender. The velocity of lumbar back shape changes was measured using Epionics SPINE during maximum flexion and extension activities in 429 asymptomatic volunteers. The difference between maximum positive and negative velocities represented the RoKs. The mean RoKs for flexion decreased with age; 114°/s (20–35 years), 100°/s (36–50 years) and 83°/s (51–75 years). For extension, the corresponding mean RoKs were 73°/s, 57°/s and 47°/s. ANCOVA analyses revealed that age and gender had the largest influence on the RoKs (p<0.05). The Epionics SPINE system allows the rapid assessment of functional kinematics in the lumbar spine. The results of this study now serve as normative data for comparison to patients with spinal pathology or after surgical treatment.
Management of the open abdomen during the global war on terror.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate factors that are predictive of delayed abdominal closure in patients injured during military conflict. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS Seventy-one patients managed with an open abdomen were identified from records at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center from 2005 and 2006. Follow-up data were available from Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Records were reviewed through all echelons of care. Ordinal logistic regression was used to predict delayed abdominal closure. RESULTS Patients sustained injury from blunt (n = 2), penetrating (n = 30), and blast (n = 39) mechanisms. The median Injury Severity Score was 25 (interquartile range, 17-34). Abdominal injury was observed in 85% of patients, and 48% underwent a massive transfusion. The median time to transfer to the United States was 5.3 days (interquartile range, 4.3-6.8 days). Abdomens were definitively closed downrange (11%), at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (33%), or at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (56%). The median time until abdominal closure was 13 days (interquartile range, 4-40 days) in 2005 compared with 4 days (interquartile range, 1-14.5 days) in 2006 (P = .02). The multivariate model identified massive transfusion (odds ratio, 3.9), presence of complications (odds ratio, 5.1), and an injury date in 2005 (odds ratio, 3.4) as independently predictive variables for later abdominal closure. CONCLUSIONS Massive transfusion, occurrence of complications, and earlier injury date were predictive of delayed abdominal closure in casualties managed with an open abdomen. These data suggest an evolving approach to the management of severely injured combat casualties that involves earlier abdominal closure.
Cold atmospheric plasma, a novel promising anti-cancer treatment modality

Over the past decade, cold atmospheric plasma (CAP), a near room temperature ionized gas has shown its promising application in cancer therapy. Two CAP devices, namely dielectric barrier discharge and plasma jet, show significantly anti-cancer capacity over dozens of cancer cell lines in vitro and several subcutaneous xenograft tumors in vivo. In contrast to conventional anti-cancer approaches and drugs, CAP is a selective anti-cancer treatment modality. Thus far establishing the chemical and molecular mechanism of the anti-cancer capacity of CAP is far from complete. In this review, we provide a comprehensive introduction of the basics of CAP, state of the art research in this field, the primary challenges, and future directions to cancer biologists.
Tripling Survival From Sudden Cardiac Arrest Via Early Defibrillation Without Traditional Education in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Background—Early defibrillation is the most important intervention affecting survival from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). To improve public access to early defibrillation, we established Piacenza Progetto Vita (PPV), the first system of out-of-hospital early defibrillation by first-responder volunteers. Methods and Results—The system serves a population of 173 114 residents in the Piacenza region of Italy. Equipment for the system comprises 39 semiautomatic external biphasic defibrillators (AEDs): 12 placed in high-risk locations, 12 in lay-staffed ambulances, and 15 in police cars; 1285 lay volunteers trained in use of the AED, without traditional education in cardiac pulmonary resuscitation, responded to all cases of suspected SCA, in coordination with the Emergency Medical System (EMS). During the first 22 months, 354 SCA occurred (72±12 years, 73% witnessed). The PPV volunteers treated 143 SCA cases (40.4%), with an EMS call-to-arrival time of 4.8±1.2 minutes (versus 6.2±2.3 minutes for EMS, P =0.05). Overall survival rate to hospital discharge was tripled from 3.3% (7 of 211) for EMS intervention to 10.5% (15 of 143) for PPV intervention (P =0.006). The survival rate for witnessed SCA was tripled by PPV: 15.5% versus 4.3% in the EMS-treated group (P =0.002). A “shockable” rhythm was present in 23.8% (34 of 143) of the PPV patients versus 15.6% (33 of 211) of the EMS patients (P =0.055). The survival rate from shockable dysrhythmias was higher for PPV versus EMS: 44.1% (15 of 34) versus 21.2% (7 of 33), P =0.046. The neurologically intact survival rate was higher in PPV-treated versus EMS-treated patients: 8.4% (12 of 143) versus 2.4% (5 of 211), P =0.009. Conclusions—Broad dissemination of AEDs for use by nonmedical volunteers enabled early defibrillation and tripled the survival rate for out-of-hospital SCA.
A Case-Control Study of Non-parametric Approaches for Detecting SNP-SNP Interactions

The massive volume of SNP data available requires the use of adequate computational strategies to properly handle it. Identify the SNP-SNP and SNP-environment combinations that better explain the propensity for a certain disease. We introduce a website (https://jaqueira.cin.ufpe.br/pit/faces/index.jsp) where three previously reported and a new method for SNP-SNP interaction are implemented, and can be executed individually or all together for the same dataset. We also present the results of a case-control study of those methods, based on 70 epistatic models, varying rates for heritability and for minor allele frequency. The experiments also consider different numbers of SNPs and sizes of case-control sets. We observe that for a small number of SNPs, the four methods are statistically equal, but when the number of SNPs grow, they have different behavior, except for ESNP2 and our method. Although the methods are exhaustive, in general, in our analysis ESNP2 runs much faster and achieves better accuracy. Nonetheless, the performance of ESNP2 can be disturbed in a scenario where a single gene can explain most of the epistatic effects. In those cases, considering the interaction effects of all SNPs, instead of only the most significant, can deliver more accurate results. A proposed method, called Multi-Approach SNP-SNP Interaction Analysis (MASS), although statistically equal to ESNP2, achieves better results than ESNP2 in that situation. Our experiments show that specific epistatic models lead to particularly better or worse performance. While a small value for minor allele frequency can negatively impact the accuracy, small heritability rates if the single variation studied that has the strongest negative impact on the accuracy.