Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of a Macroscopic Damage Model for Woven Ceramic Matrix Composites

The aim of this article is to propose a macroscopic damage model, which describes the nonlinear behavior observed on woven composites with ceramic matrix. The model is built within a thermodynamic framework with internal variables. First of all, the efficiency of the model to describe the mechanical behavior of carbon fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composites is outlined. Then, the predictive capability of the model is evaluated with the help of an alternate torsion test.
Preprocessing of two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis images

Proteomics produces a huge amount of two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis images. Their analysis can yield a lot of information concerning proteins responsible for different diseases or new unidentified proteins. However, an automatic analysis of such images requires an efficient tool for reducing noise in images. This allows proper detection of the spots' borders, which is important in protein quantification (as the spots' areas are used to determine the amounts of protein present in an analyzed mixture). Also in the feature‐based matching methods the detected features (spots) can be described by additional attributes, such as area or shape. In our study, a comparison of different methods of noise reduction is performed in order to find out a method best suited for reducing noise in gel images. Among the compared methods there are the classical methods of linear filtering, e.g., the mean and Gaussian filtering, the nonlinear method, i.e., median filtering, and also the methods better suited for processing of nonstationary signals, such as spatially adaptive linear filtering and filtering in the wavelet domain. The best results are obtained by filtering of gel images in the wavelet domain, using the BayesThresh method of threshold value determination.
Diagnosis of Epilepsy and Related Episodic Disorders

ABSTRACTPurpose of Review: This review identifies the diverse and variable clinical presentations associated with epilepsy that may create challenges in diagnosis and treatment.Recent Findings: Epilepsy has recently been redefined as a disease characterized by one or more seizures with a relatively high recurrence risk (ie, 60% or greater likelihood). The implication of this definition for therapy is that antiepileptic drug therapy may be initiated following a first seizure in certain situations.EEG remains the most commonly used study in the evaluation of people with epilepsy. Routine EEG may assist in diagnosis, classification of seizure type(s), identification of treatment, and monitoring the efficacy of therapy. Video-EEG monitoring permits seizure classification, assessment of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures, and evaluation of candidacy for epilepsy surgery. MRI is pivotal in elucidating the etiology of the seizure disorder and in suggesting the localization of seizure onset.Summary: This article reviews the new International League Against Epilepsy practical clinical definition for epilepsy and the differential diagnosis of other physiologic paroxysmal spells, including syncope, parasomnias, transient ischemic attacks, and migraine, as well as psychogenic nonepileptic seizures. The initial investigational approaches to new-onset epilepsy are considered, including neuroimaging and neurophysiologic investigations with interictal and ictal video-EEG. Neurologists should maintain a high index of suspicion for epilepsy when children or adults present with a single paroxysmal spell or recurrent episodic events.
An anonymization method combining anatomy and permutation for protecting privacy in microdata with multiple sensitive attributes

Microdata, such as customer transactional data, play an important role in data mining area. To protect privacy of individuals, microdata should be anonymized or desensitized before publishing or mining it. Anatomy is a popular technique to anonymize microdata. However, the Anatomy technique cannot resist linking attacks for the reason that it does not distort quasi-identifier attributes. To overcome the disadvantage of anatomy, we propose a method combining anatomy with permutation to anonymize microdata. The proposed method anonymizes microdata in two major steps: (1) anatomizing microdata, and (2) permutating quasi-identifier attributes. To realize the anonymization method, we further propose two algorithms, namely the NMBPA (Naive Multi-sensitive Bucketization Permutation Algorithm) and the CDMBPA (Closest Distance Multi-sensitive Bucketization Permutation Algorithm). Experimental results show that the proposed method can deal with linking attacks effectively, i.e., generate high quality anonymous data with low suppression ratios.
Grain boundary effect on the anisotropy piezoresistance of laser-recrystallized polysilicon layers in SOI-structures

A physical model of grain boundary influence on the piezoresistive effect of p-type conductivity of polysilicon layers in SOI-structures is developed. Software calculating piezoresistive properties of boron-doped p-type polysilicon layers has been developed. These properties may be calculated over wide concentration and temperature ranges with anisotropy taken into account and with the average grain size as a parameter. The potential barrier regions around the grain boundaries influence the deformation changes of anisotropy resistance in the fine-grained non-recrystallized SOI-structures doped with boron up to 3 1019cm 3 only.
Using a continuum of light in STED confocal microscopy

In this work, we numerically show that a continuum of light, generated by a femtosecond laser and a microstrured fiber (MF) can be used as tunable source for STED microscopy. The envisaged setup is composed by a microscope on which such a continuum is inserted. The spectral excitation and STED bands selection is performed by a monochromator based on an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF). Pulse temporal shapes fluctuations and intensity fluctuations effects are investigated. Those fluctuations are consistent with the experimental measurements. Temporal variations have little influence on the STED efficiency, whereas intensity fluctuations have much more effects.
The latency hiding effectiveness of decoupled access/execute processors

Several studies have demonstrated that out-of-order execution processors may not be the most adequate organization for wide-issue processors due to the increasing penalties that wire delays cause in the issue logic. The main target of out-of-order execution is to hide functional unit latencies and memory latency. However, the former can be quite effectively handled at compile time and this observation is one of the main arguments for the emerging EPIC architectures. In this paper, we demonstrate that a decoupled access/execute organization is very effective at hiding memory latency, even when it is very long. This paper presents a thorough evaluation of such processor organization. First, a generic decoupled access/execute architecture is defined and evaluated. Then the benefits of a lockup-free cache, control speculation and a store-load bypass mechanism under such an architecture are evaluated. Our analysis indicates that memory latency can be almost completely hidden by such techniques.
The Effects of Levosimendan and Sodium Nitroprusside Combination on Left Ventricular Functions After Surgical Ventricular Reconstruction in Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Patients

Objective: The aim of our study was to research the effects of levosimendan (LS) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) combination on systolic and diastolic ventricular function after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) who required endoventricular patch repair (EVPR). Patients and Methods: We studied 70 patients with ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy. LS and SNP combination was administered in 35 patients (study group, SG). In the remaining patients, normal saline solution was given (placebo group, PG). Levosimendan (10µgr/kg) started 4 h prior to operation and we stopped LS before the initiation of extracorporeal circulation (ECC). During the rewarming period, we started again levosimendan (10µgr/kg) in combination with SNP (0.1-0.2 µgr/kg/min). If mean blood pressure decreased by more than 25% compared with pre-infusion values, for corrected of mean arterial pressure, the volume loading was performed using a 500 ml ringer lactate. Hemodynamic variables, inotrophyc requirement, and laboratory values were recorded. Results: Five patients died (7.14%) post-surgery (one from SG and 4 from PG) due to low cardiac out-put syndrome (LOS). At the postoperative period, cardiac output and stroke volume index was higher in SG (mean±sd;29.1±6.3 vs. 18.4±4.9 mL/min−1/m−2 (P<0.0001)). Stroke volume index (SVI) decreased from 29±10mL/m2 preoperatively to 22±14mL/m2 in the early postoperative period in group 1. This difference was statistically significant (P=0.002). Cardiac index was higher in SG (320.7±37.5 vs. 283.0±83.9 mL/min−1/m−2 (P=0.009)). The postoperative inotrophyc requirement was less in SG (5.6±2.7 vs. 10.4±2.0 mg/kg, P< 0.008), and postoperative cardiac enzyme levels were less in SG (P< 0.01). Ten patients (28.5%) in SG and 21 patients (60%) in PG required inotrophyc support (P<0.001). We used IABP in eight patients (22.8%) in SG and 17 patients (48.5%) in CG (P=0.0001). Conclusion: This study showed that LS and SNP combination impressive increase in left ventricular systolic and diastolic functions including LVEF. The use of this combination achieved more less inotrophics and IABP requirement. We therefore suggest preoperative and peroperative levosimendan and SNP combination.
Improvement in harmonic reduction of zigzag autoconnected transformer based 12-pulse diode bridge rectifier by current injection at DC side

To improve the harmonic reduction ability in input line current of 12-pulse diode bridge rectifier (DBR) using zigzag autoconnected transformer with a dc side current injection technique is presented in this paper. Conventional 12-pulse rectifier does not meet the IEEE-519 standard and therefore current injection technique at dc side is used to shape the system current waveform to minimize the harmonic distortion in the input line current. The proposed configuration uses zigzag autoconnected transformer with inherent ability of blocking zero-sequence components which eliminate the requirement of zero sequence blocking transformer (ZSBT). The current injection circuit with interphase reactor (IPR) enables to alter dc current at the rectifier output which further shapes input line currents to near sinewave. The proposed configuration is designed, simulated and analyzed in MATLAB/SIMULINK. Simulation results of proposed configuration for variation in current injection and load on input line current harmonic suppression, power quality parameters are presented in this paper.
A New Semantic Functional Similarity over Gene Ontology

Identifying functionally similar or closely related genes and gene products has significant impacts on biological and clinical studies as well as drug discovery. In this paper, we propose an effective and practically useful method measuring both gene and gene product similarity by integrating the topology of gene ontology, known functional domains and their functional annotations. The proposed method is comprehensively evaluated through statistical analysis of the similarities derived from sequence, structure and phylogenetic profiles, and clustering analysis of disease genes clusters. Our results show that the proposed method clearlyoutperforms other conventional methods. Furthermore, literature analysis also reveals that the proposed method is both statistically and biologically promising for identifying functionally similar genes or gene products. In particular, we demonstrate that the proposed functional similarity metric is capable of discoverying new disease related genes or gene products.
Medical negligence liability under the consumer protection act: A review of judicial perspective

It is important to know what constitutes medical negligence. A doctor owes certain duties to the patient who consults him for illness. A deficiency in this duty results in negligence. A basic knowledge of how medical negligence is adjudicated in the various judicial courts of India will help a doctor to practice his profession without undue worry about facing litigation for alleged medical negligence.
Building a lexical knowledge-base of near-synonym differences

Current natural language generation or machine translation systems cannot distinguish among near-synonyms—words that share the same core meaning but vary in their lexical nuances. This is due to a lack of knowledge about differences between near-synonyms in existing computational lexical resources. The goal of this thesis is to automatically acquire a lexical knowledge-base of near-synonym differences (LKB of NS) from multiple sources, and to show how it can be used in a practical natural language processing system. I designed a method to automatically acquire knowledge from dictionaries of near-synonym discrimination written for human readers. An unsupervised decision-list algorithm learns patterns and words for classes of distinctions. The patterns are learned automatically, followed by a manual validation step. The extraction of distinctions between near-synonyms is entirely automatic. The main types of distinctions are: stylistic (for example, inebriated is more formal than drunk), attitudinal (for example, skinny is more pejorative than slim), and denotational (for example, blunder implies accident and ignorance, while error does not). I enriched the initial LKB of NS with information extracted from other sources. First, information about the senses of the near-synonym was added (WordNet senses). Second, knowledge about the collocational behaviour of the near-synonyms was acquired from free text. Collocations between a word and the near-synonyms in a dictionary entry were classified into: preferred collocations, less-preferred collocations, and anti-collocations. Third, knowledge about distinctions between near-synonyms was acquired from machine-readable dictionaries (the General Inquirer and the Macquarie Dictionary). These distinctions were merged with the initial LKB of NS, and inconsistencies were resolved. The generic LKB of NS needs to be customized in order to be used in a natural language processing system. The parts that need customization are the core denotations and the strings that describe peripheral concepts in the denotational distinctions. To show how the LKB of NS can be used in practice, I present Xenon, a natural language generation system that chooses the near-synonym that best matches a set of input preferences. I implemented Xenon by adding a near-synonym choice module and a near-synonym collocation module to an existing general-purpose surface realizer.
Improvement of pregnancy rate by intrauterine administration of dexamethasone and recombinant human leukemia inhibitory factor at the time of embryo transfer in cattle

Bovine embryos (day 5) were cultured to day 10 with or without 100 ng/mL PGF2α in medium supplemented with control; 100 nM Dex; 1,000 U/mL recombinant human leukemia inhibitory factor (rhLIF); or Dex+rhLIF. Although the rates to development to the blastocyst were not significantly different among groups, the hatching rate after additional culture with Dex +/or rhLIF was significantly higher in all supplemented groups than the control (p < 0.05). In the presence of PGF2α, the hatching rate was significantly restored in all supplemented groups relative to the group treated with only PGF2α and the control (p < 0.05). Embryo transfer (ET) was performed with blastocysts (day 7). PGF2α levels of control recipient cows were significantly higher in the circulatory blood samples collected 60 min after ET than in samples collected 60 min before ET (p < 0.005), and were decreased in cows injected with loading medium supplemented with Dex+rhLIF (p < 0.005). Pregnancy rate was significantly higher in the ET group that received supplemented embryo-loading medium than in the non-supplemented control (p < 0.05). The intrauterine administration of Dex and rhLIF at ET prevented increased PGF2α in circulatory blood and resulted in enhanced pregnancy rate.
Statistical Peak Temperature Prediction and Thermal Yield Improvement for 3D Chip Multiprocessors

Thermal issues have become critical roadblocks for achieving highly reliable three-dimensional (3D) integrated circuits (ICs). The presence of process variations further exacerbates these problems. In this article, we propose techniques for the efficient evaluation and mitigation of the impact of leakage power variations on the temperature profile of 3D Chip Multiprocessors (CMPs). Experimental results demonstrate that, due to the impact of process variations, a 4-tier 3D implementation can be more than 40ˆC hotter and 23% leakier than its 2D counterpart. To determine the maximum temperature of each fabricated 3D IC, we propose an accurate learning-based model for peak temperature prediction. Based on the learning model, we then propose two post-fabrication techniques to increase the thermal yield of 3D CMPs: (1) tier restacking and (2) thermally-aware die matching. Experimental results show that: (1) the proposed prediction model achieves more than 98% accuracy, and (2) the proposed thermally-aware, post-fabrication optimization techniques significantly improve the thermal yield from only 51% to 99% for 3D CMPs.
Electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of copper core-woven fabrics

Copper is selected as a conductive filler to produce copper core yarns to make woven fabric using a network analyser equipment, and the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of these fabrics is measured in the frequency range of 20–18,000 MHz. With an increase in the number of conductive fabric layers, finer yarn count, warp density, weft density and cover factors, an increase in shielding effectiveness is observed. With an increase in copper wire diameter, a decrease in shielding effectiveness is observed.
Generalized Twin Gaussian Processes using

There has been a growing interest in mutual information measures due to their wide range of applications in Machine Learning and Computer Vision. In this paper, we present a generalized structured regression framework based on Shama-Mittal divergence, a relative entropy measure, which is introduced to the Machine Learning community in this work. Sharma-Mittal (SM) divergence is a generalized mutual information measure for the widely used Rényi, Tsallis, Bhattacharyya, and Kullback-Leibler (KL) relative entropies. Specifically, we study Sharma-Mittal divergence as a cost function in the context of the Twin Gaussian Processes (TGP) (Bo and Sminchisescu 2010), which generalizes over the KL-divergence without computational penalty. We show interesting properties of Sharma-Mittal TGP (SMTGP) through a theoretical analysis, which covers missing insights in the traditional TGP formulation. However, we generalize this theory based on SM-divergence instead of KL-divergence which is a special case. Experimentally, we evaluated the proposed SMTGP framework on several datasets. The results show that SMTGP reaches better predictions than KL-based TGP, since it offers a bigger class of models through its parameters that we learn from the data.
Aligning an Enterprise System with Enterprise Requirements: An Iterative Process

Aligning an off-the-shelf software package with the business processes of the enterprise implementing it is one of the main problems in the implementation of enterprise systems. The paper proposes an iterative alignment process, which takes a requirement-driven approach. It benefits from reusing business process design without being restricted by predefined solutions and criteria. The process employs an automated matching between a model of the enterprise requirements and a model of the enterprise system capabilities. It identifies possible matches between the two models and evaluates the gaps between them despite differences in their completeness and detail level. Thus it provides the enterprise with a set of feasible combinations of requirements that can be satisfied by the system as a basis for making implementation decisions. The automated matching is applied iteratively, until a satisfactory solution is found. Object Process Methodology (OPM) is applied for modeling both the system and the enterprise requirements, which are inputs for the automated matching. The alignment process has been tested in an experimental study, whose encouraging results demonstrate its ability to provide a satisfactory solution to the alignment problem.
Delayed Onset of Symptoms and Atovaquone-Proguanil Chemoprophylaxis Breakthrough by Plasmodium malariae in the Absence of Mutation at Codon 268 of pmcytb

Plasmodium malariae is widely distributed across the tropics, causing symptomatic malaria in humans with a 72-hour fever periodicity, and may present after latency periods lasting up to many decades. Delayed occurrence of symptoms is observed in humans using chemoprophylaxis, or patients having received therapies targeting P. falciparum intraerythrocytic asexual stages, but few investigators have addressed the biological basis of the ability of P. malariae to persist in the human host. To investigate these interesting features of P. malariae epidemiology, we assembled, here, an extensive case series of P. malariae malaria patients presenting in non-endemic China, Sweden, and the UK who returned from travel in endemic countries, mainly in Africa. Out of 378 evaluable P. malariae cases, 100 (26.2%) reported using at least partial chemoprophylaxis, resembling the pattern seen with the relapsing parasites P. ovale spp. and P. vivax. In contrast, for only 7.5% of imported UK cases of non-relapsing P. falciparum was any chemoprophylaxis use reported. Genotyping of parasites from six patients reporting use of atovaquone-proguanil chemoprophylaxis did not reveal mutations at codon 268 of the cytb locus of the P. malariae mitochondrial genome. While travellers with P. malariae malaria are significantly more likely to report prophylaxis use during endemic country travel than are those with P. falciparum infections, atovaquone-proguanil prophylaxis breakthrough was not associated with pmcytb mutations. These preliminary studies, together with consistent observations of the remarkable longevity of P. malariae, lead us to propose re-examination of the dogma that this species is not a relapsing parasite. Further studies are needed to investigate our favoured hypothesis, namely that P. malariae can initiate a latent hypnozoite developmental programme in the human hepatocyte: if validated this will explain the consistent observations of remarkable longevity of parasitism, even in the presence of antimalarial prophylaxis or treatment.
Polyphosphates as Inhibitors for Poly(vinyl Chloride) Photodegradation

Three polyphosphates were used as inhibitors for poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) photodegradation. The polyphosphates were added to PVC at a concentration of 0.5% by weight. The PVC films (40 µm thickness) were irradiated at room temperature with ultraviolet (UV) light for up to 300 h. The changes in PVC films after irradiation were monitored by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, weight loss, viscosity-average molecular weight determination, and atomic force microscopy. These changes were very noticeable in the blank PVC films compared to the ones obtained when additives were used. The polyphosphates can inhibit the PVC photodegradation through direct absorption of UV light, interactions with PVC chains, and acting as radical scavengers.
A History of Shoulder Surgery

Shoulder surgery has emerged from being a marginalised sub-speciality to being an area of much research and advancement within the last seventy years. This has been despite the complexity of the joint, and success majorly rests on parallel development of biomedical technology. This article looks at the past and present of shoulder surgery and discusses future directions in the speciality.