Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optical Coherence Tomographic Analysis of In-Stent Neoatherosclerosis After Drug–Eluting Stent Implantation

Background— We report findings from optical coherence tomography (OCT) of in-stent neoatherosclerosis as a cause of drug-eluting stent (DES) failure. Methods and Results— Optical coherence tomography and grayscale and virtual histology intravascular ultrasound were performed in 50 patients (30 stable, 20 unstable angina) with 50 DES in-stent restenosis lesions and intimal hyperplasia >50% of stent area. Median follow-up time was 32.2 months. Overall, 26 lesions (52%) had at least 1 OCT-defined in-stent thin-cap fibroatheroma (TCFA)–containing neointima and 29 (58%) had at least 1 in-stent neointimal rupture. Patients presenting with unstable angina showed a thinner fibrous cap (55 &mgr;m [interquartile range 42 to 105 &mgr;m] versus 100 &mgr;m [interquartile range 60 to 205 &mgr;m], P=0.006) and higher incidence of OCT-defined TCFA-containing neointima (75% versus 37%, P=0.008), intimal rupture (75% versus 47%, P=0.044), thrombi (80% versus 43%, P=0.010), and red thrombi (30% versus 3%, P=0.012) than stable patients. Fibrous cap thickness negatively correlated with follow-up time (r=−0.318, P=0.024). Compared with DES <20 months after implantation (the best cut-off to predict TCFA-containing neointima), DES ≥20 months after implantation had a higher incidence of TCFA-containing neointima (69% versus 33%, P=0.012) and red thrombi (27% versus 0%, P=0.007). Patients with unstable (versus stable) angina had an increasing number of unstable OCT findings including TCFA-containing neointima, neointima rupture, and thrombus (P=0.027). The rate of agreement between grayscale intravascular ultrasound and OCT for detecting intimal rupture was 50% and for detecting thrombus was 44%. The agreement between virtual histology intravascular ultrasound and OCT for identifying TCFA-containing neointima was 78%. Conclusions— In-stent neoatherosclerosis may be an important mechanism of DES failure, especially late after implantation.
Antiquity and diversity of aboriginal Australian Y-chromosomes.

OBJECTIVE Understanding the origins of Aboriginal Australians is crucial in reconstructing the evolution and spread of Homo sapiens as evidence suggests they represent the descendants of the earliest group to leave Africa. This study analyzed a large sample of Y-chromosomes to answer questions relating to the migration routes of their ancestors, the age of Y-haplogroups, date of colonization, as well as the extent of male-specific variation. METHODS Knowledge of Y-chromosome variation among Aboriginal Australians is extremely limited. This study examined Y-SNP and Y-STR variation among 657 self-declared Aboriginal males from locations across the continent. 17 Y-STR loci and 47 Y-SNPs spanning the Y-chromosome phylogeny were typed in total. RESULTS The proportion of non-indigenous Y-chromosomes of assumed Eurasian origin was high, at 56%. Y lineages of indigenous Sahul origin belonged to haplogroups C-M130*(xM8,M38,M217,M347) (1%), C-M347 (19%), K-M526*(xM147,P308,P79,P261,P256,M231,M175,M45,P202) (12%), S-P308 (12%), and M-M186 (0.9%). Haplogroups C-M347, K-M526*, and S-P308 are Aboriginal Australian-specific. Dating of C-M347, K-M526*, and S-P308 indicates that all are at least 40,000 years old, confirming their long-term presence in Australia. Haplogroup C-M347 comprised at least three sub-haplogroups: C-DYS390.1del, C-M210, and the unresolved paragroup C-M347*(xDYS390.1del,M210). CONCLUSIONS There was some geographic structure to the Y-haplogroup variation, but most haplogroups were present throughout Australia. The age of the Australian-specific Y-haplogroups suggests New Guineans and Aboriginal Australians have been isolated for over 30,000 years, supporting findings based on mitochondrial DNA data. Our data support the hypothesis of more than one route (via New Guinea) for males entering Sahul some 50,000 years ago and give no support for colonization events during the Holocene, from either India or elsewhere.
Novel LVCSR Decoder Based on Perfect Hash Automata and Tuple Structures - SPREAD -

The paper presents the novel design of a one-pass large vocabulary continuous-speech recognition decoder engine, named SPREAD. The decoder is based on a time-synchronous beam-search approach, including statically expanded cross-word triphone contexts. An approach using efficient tuple structures is proposed for the construction of the complete search-network. The foremost benefits are the important space savings and higher processing speed, and the compact and reduced size of the tuple structure, especially when exploiting the structure of the key. In this way, the time needed to load the ASR search-network into the memory is also significantly reduced. Further, the paper proposes and presents the complete methodology for compiling general ASR knowledge sources into a tuple structures. Additionally, the beam search is enhanced with the novel implementation of a bigram language model Look-Ahead technique, by using tuple structures and a caching scheme. The SPREAD LVCSR decoder is based on a token-passing algorithm, capable of restricting its search-space by several types of token pruning. By using the presented language model Look-Ahead technique, it is possible to increase the number of tokens that can be pruned without decoding precision loss.
Self-heating of silicon microwires: Crystallization and thermoelectric effects

We describe experiments on self-heating and melting of nanocrystalline silicon microwires using single high-amplitude microsecond voltage pulses, which result in growth of large single-crystal domains upon resolidification. Extremely high current densities (>20 MA/cm^2) and consequent high temperatures (1700 K) and temperature gradients (1 K/nm) along the microwires give rise to strong thermoelectric effects. The thermoelectric effects are characterized through capture and analysis of light emission from the self-heated wires biased with lower magnitude direct current/alternating current voltages. The hottest spot on the wires consistently appears closer to the lower potential end for n-type microwires and to the higher potential end for p-type microwires. The experimental light emission profiles are used to verify the mathematical models and material parameters used for the simulations. Good agreement between experimental and simulated profiles indicates that these models can be used to predict and design optimum geometry and bias conditions for current-induced crystallization of microstructures.
Cerebral Energy Metabolism During Severe Ischemia of Varying Duration and Following Reperfusion

Abstract: Changes in cerebral cortical adenine nucleotide and adenosine levels during 10‐, 20‐, or 40‐min periods of four‐vessel occlusion producing cerebral ischemia in rats and reperfusions of 10, 45, or 90 min were determined to evaluate the effects of ischemia duration on mitochondrial function. Substantial recovery was evident following 10 or 20 min of cerebral ischemia but not, however, after a 40‐min period of ischemia. A secondary decline in the cortical levels of ATP became evident following 40 min of cerebral ischemia and 90 min of reperfusion. Longer periods of ischemia may be associated with a loss of adenosine, limiting the resynthesis of ATP during reperfusion. A separate group of rats, resuscitated with 100% O2, demonstrated a more rapid recovery of mitochondrial function compared with animals that received room air during reperfusion following 20 min of cerebral ischemia. No detrimental effects of 100% O2 were observed during the 90‐min period of reperfusion, indicating that 100% O2 does not promote early mitochondrial dysfunction.
Polarized Stochastic Amplification During Mating in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

We have developed a spatial stochastic model of polarisome formation in mating yeast, focusing on the tight localization of proteins on the membrane. This new model is built on simple mechanistic components, but is able to achieve a highly polarized phenotype with a relatively shallow input gradient. Preliminary results highlight the need for spatial stochastic modeling and simulation to reproduce experimental observations.
Effect of reconfiguration and mesh on small signal stability margin of a droop-based islanded microgrid

This paper investigates the effect of reconfiguration and network type (mesh/radial) on small signal stability margin of a droop-based islanded microgrid. A low voltage microgrid and standard IEEE 33 bus system (with three and five sources) are considered for study. From eigenvalue analysis and root locus plot, it is found that the reconfiguration and network type has significant effect on small signal stability. Results are verified through time domain simulation using MATLAB/SIMULINK for the systems considered.
Genetics of hybrid sterility and hybrid breakdown in an intersubspecific rice (Oryza sativa L.) population.

F1 hybrid sterility and "hybrid breakdown" of F2 and later generations in rice (Oryza sativa L.) are common and genetically complicated. We used a restriction fragment length polymorphism linkage map and F4 progeny testing to investigate hybrid sterility and hybrid breakdown in a cross between "widely compatible" O. sativa ssp. japonica cultivar Lemont from the Southern U.S. and ssp. indica cultivar Teqing from China. Our results implicate different genetic mechanisms in hybrid sterility and hybrid breakdown, respectively. Hybrid sterility appeared to be due to recombination within a number of putative differentiated "supergenes" in the rice genome, which may reflect cryptic structural rearrangements. The cytoplasmic genome had a large effect on fertility of both male and female gametes in the F1 hybrids. There appeared to be a pair of complementary genes that behaved like "wide compatibility" genes. This pair of genes and the "gamete eliminator" (S1) or "egg killer" (S-5) may influence the phenotypic effects of presumed supergenes in hybrids. Hybrid breakdown appeared to be largely due to incompatibilities between indica and japonica alleles at many unlinked epistatic loci in the genome. These proposed mechanisms may partly account for the complicated nature of postreproductive barriers in rice.
Dynamic Resource Management in Clouds: A Probabilistic Approach

SUMMARY Dynamic resource management has become an active area of research in the Cloud Computing paradigm. Cost of resources varies significantly depending on configuration for using them. Hence efficient management of resources is of prime interest to both Cloud Providers and Cloud Users. In this work we suggest a probabilistic resource provisioning approach that can be exploited as the input of a dynamic resource management scheme. Using a Video on Demand use case to justify our claims, we propose an analytical model inspired from standard models developed for epidemiology spreading, to represent sudden and intense workload variations. We show that the resulting model verifies a Large Deviation Principle that statistically characterizes extreme rare events, such as the ones produced by “buzz/flash crowd effects” that may cause workload overflow in the VoD context. This analysis provides valuable insight on expectable abnormal behaviors of systems. We exploit the information obtained using the Large Deviation Principle for the proposed Video on Demand use-case for defining policies (Service Level Agreements). We believe these policies for elastic resource provisioning and usage may be of some interest to all stakeholders in the emerging context of cloud networking.
Molecular Dynamics Study for Experimental Design Guideline of Dimeric Anthracene-based Mechanophore in the Thermoset Polymer Matrix

This paper presents a molecular level trade-off analysis on mechanophore embedded thermoset polymer matrix between its self-sensing capability and critical mechanical properties affecting performance. Dimeric 9-anthracene carboxylic acid (Di-AC), a mechanophore, was synthesized in epoxy polymer, and with the application of mechanical load, fluorescence was observed under ultraviolet (UV) excitation prior to the yield point. Experimental results, conducted with 5% Di-AC weight fraction, showed successful early damage detection capability; however, it was also observed that the inclusion of Di-AC reduced the material yield strength. To mimic this experimentally observed phenomenon and understand the complex mechanochemistry of this novel material, the molecular dynamic (MD) methodology simulates mechanophore synthesis, epoxy curing, and the mechanical loading test. Mechanophore sensitivity is investigated with different Di-AC weight fractions and the corresponding effects on the yield strength are analyzed. An initial degradation and subsequent recovery in yield strength over a certain range of weight fraction is observed. The possibility of early damage detection capability using higher Di-AC weight fractions is also investigated. Results indicate that the sensitivity to external stress is an inherent mechanophore property and is independent of the weight fraction. However, visible fluorescence (intensity), which is essential to damage detection, is highly dependent on the amount of Di-AC in the polymer.
Detection of gold nanoparticles in transmission electron microscopy images

Gold nanoparticles in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) serve for immunolabelling of antibodies in biological experiments [Von Byern (2016)]. The images are intensity (grayscale), there is no color defined in the electrons beam. The image properties (contrast, bitdepth, dynamic range, resolution, .) are person-specific, since the experts have an individual imaging-behavior. Thus we are not able to control the acquisition before the image processing. The aim of this work is to detect the presence of the nanoparticles in the image area, label their position, and evaluate their amount. The particles are supposed to be spherical, however there are various imperfections during the manufacturing, as well as quantization effects of digital images. Moreover, the size of the particles is around 50 gold atoms. The particles should be always the darkest objects, except the very large areas. The background and type or size of other objects vary due to biological reasons.
NVMe-over-fabrics performance characterization and the path to low-overhead flash disaggregation

Storage disaggregation separates compute and storage to different nodes in order to allow for independent resource scaling and thus, better hardware resource utilization. While disaggregation of hard-drives storage is a common practice, NVMe-SSD (i.e., PCIe-based SSD) disaggregation is considered more challenging. This is because SSDs are significantly faster than hard drives, so the latency overheads (due to both network and CPU processing) as well as the extra compute cycles needed for the offloading stack become much more pronounced. In this work we characterize the overheads of NVMe-SSD disaggregation. We show that NVMe-over-Fabrics (NVMf) - a recently-released remote storage protocol specification - reduces the overheads of remote access to a bare minimum, thus greatly increasing the cost-efficiency of Flash disaggregation. Specifically, while recent work showed that SSD storage disaggregation via iSCSI degrades application-level throughput by 20%, we report on negligible performance degradation with NVMf - both when using stress-tests as well as with a more-realistic KV-store workload.
Inclusion body myositis in post‐poliomyelitis muscular atrophy

ABSTRACT‐ A 38–year‐old male developed a new muscle weakness in his left thigh 35 years after having acute paralytic poliomyelitis with residual right distal leg weakness and atrophy. EMG studies showed widespread denervation in proximal and distal muscles regardless the clinical involvement. Muscle biopsy from an affected muscle showed the findings of inclusion‐body myositis consisting of per‐ivascular and interstitial mononuclear infiltration, sarcoplasmic granular inclusions with membranous whorls and typical filamentous inclusions in several myonuclei. This raises the possibility of inclusion body myositis in other cases of progressive post‐poliomyelitis muscular atrophy, especially those with perivascular infiltration of mononulear cells in the muscle biopsy.
Consequences of human modification of the global nitrogen cycle

The demand for more food is increasing fertilizer and land use, and the demand for more energy is increasing fossil fuel combustion, leading to enhanced losses of reactive nitrogen (Nr) to the environment. Many thresholds for human and ecosystem health have been exceeded owing to Nr pollution, including those for drinking water (nitrates), air quality (smog, particulate matter, ground-level ozone), freshwater eutrophication, biodiversity loss, stratospheric ozone depletion, climate change and coastal ecosystems (dead zones). Each of these environmental effects can be magnified by the ‘nitrogen cascade’: a single atom of Nr can trigger a cascade of negative environmental impacts in sequence. Here, we provide an overview of the impact of Nr on the environment and human health, including an assessment of the magnitude of different environmental problems, and the relative importance of Nr as a contributor to each problem. In some cases, Nr loss to the environment is the key driver of effects (e.g. terrestrial and coastal eutrophication, nitrous oxide emissions), whereas in some other situations nitrogen represents a key contributor exacerbating a wider problem (e.g. freshwater pollution, biodiversity loss). In this way, the central role of nitrogen can remain hidden, even though it actually underpins many trans-boundary pollution problems.
Endothelin: a new vasoactive ocular peptide.

The retinal vasculature and autoregulation The tone of most blood vessels in the body is regulated by means of the autonomic nervous system. The vasculature of the human retina, however, lacks extrinsic innervation even though autonomic receptors are present in the walls. ' Vessel calibre and local blood flow are normally regulated by non-nervous mechanisms intrinsic to the retina. This auto-regulatory process helps preserve a uniform retinal blood flow in the presence of a variable perfusion pressure and matches it to tissue oxygen and metabolic requirements.2 The failure of autoregulation is an important and often early feature of retinal vascular disease and can be influenced in some instances by laser photocoagulation, for example diabetic retinopathy.3 Retinal pericytes The effector cells in autoregulation are the vascular smooth muscle (VSM) cells, and their tone and active contraction control vessel diameter, blood flow, and tissue oxygen levels. In most mammalian circulations the precapillary arteriolar sphincters play a pivotal role in the control of blood flow to the capillary bed.4 However these strategic collars of smooth muscle cells are not a feature of the retinal circulation in the primate eye. There is now a considerable body of evidence to suggest that retinal pericytes, which are the microvascular correlates of VSM cells, are responsible for changes in retinal capillary tone and local blood flow. Pericytes have been shown to contain the smooth muscle isoforms of both actin and myosin' and cGMP dependent protein kinase,6 thus providing further documentation of morphological and biochemical similarities to smooth muscle and for a contractile role. Pericytes have also been shown to deform substrata in vitro7 demonstrating that these cells have the potential to contract and exert significant amounts of traction in vivo. Endothelin 1: an endothelium-derived vasoactive agent It is now known that vascular endothelium can influence vascular tone and blood flow by the production of potent vasodilators8 and vasoconstrictors9 which affect the underlying smooth muscle. In 1988 Yanagisawa et al isolated and characterised an endothelium-derived 21 amino acid vaso-constrictor polypeptide which they termed endothelin. '0 Endothelin is a member of a family of peptides arising from three preproendothelin species which, after proteolysis, yield three isoforms termed endothelin 1, 2, and 3 (ET1, ET2, and ET3). " ETL is the most potent constrictor known of large and small vessels particularly those of the kidney and has major biological effects on VSM cells'2 and the renal mesangial cell which is a pericyte. 13 …
Hydrostatic pressure sensitivity of standard polymer fibre Bragg gratings and etched polymer fibre Bragg gratings

The hydrostatic pressure sensitivity of polymer optical fibre Bragg grating of different diameters is investigated. For this purpose Bragg gratings are inscribed in single-mode polymer fibre and also in etched single-mode polymer fibre. The inherent pressure sensitivity of the grating are experimentally investigated up-to 1MPa by monitoring the change in the reflected peak wavelengths due to pressure. It is observed that polymer FBGs exhibit a positive Bragg wavelength shift and is also more sensitive compared to silica FBGs. The pressure sensitivity of the polymer FBG can be increased by reducing the diameter of the fibre.
Fast approximate quantitative visibility for complex scenes

Ray tracing and Monte-Carlo based global illumination, as well as radiosity and other finite-element based global illumination methods, all require repeated evaluation of quantitative visibility queries, such as: what is the average visibility between a point (a differential area element) and a finite area or volume; or what is the average visibility between two finite areas or volumes. We present a new data structure and an algorithm for rapidly evaluating such queries in complex scenes. The proposed approach utilizes a novel image-based discretization of the space of bounded rays in the scene, constructed in a preprocessing stage. This data structure makes it possible to quickly compute approximate answers to visibility queries. Because visibility queries are computed using a discretization of the space, the execution time is effectively decoupled from the number of geometric primitives in the scene. A potential hazard with the proposed approach is that it might require large amounts of memory, if the data structures are designed in a naive fashion. We discuss ways for representing the discretization in a compact manner while still allowing rapid query evaluation. Preliminary results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Social rank governs the effective environment of siblings

Siblings within the same family often differ dramatically in phenotype. Some differences are attributable to initial maternal handicaps (birth or hatching asynchrony, differences in egg or neonate size and hormonal or antioxidant titre); but differences among siblings may also arise from differences in the brood-rearing environment that offspring experience. Here, I use a model system—a long-term study of nestlings in an altricial bird—to study how an initial maternal handicap, hatching asynchrony, regulates the effective social environment of siblings in the same family as measured by offspring survival. The interaction of family size and structure generated wide differences in the effective environments of siblings living in the same physical space (a nest), and reared by the same parents, in the same family structure. Social rank was the key component of the unshared environment of contemporary siblings, and was alone sufficient to generate near-maximal differences in offspring performance. Nestlings sitting side-by-side effectively lived in different worlds.