Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wheat Straw Bio-refining. Part I: Optimization of the Microwave Radiation Process with Sulphuric Acid Pre-treatment

Background: This study investigates the microwave-assisted acid extraction of lignin from wheat straw. Methods: Two experimental design methods, the Central Composite Design (CCD) and the Response Surface Method (RSM) methods were used to select conditions and optimise the process. The parameters studied were: the stirring rate, H2SO4 concentration, microwave radiation power and residence time. Results: The optimum conditions found to achieve the maximum lignin yield (wt%) from wheat straw were: 0.46M H2SO4 under microwave radiation power of 602 W at 65% of stirring rate (3200rpm) and residence time of 39min. These conditions led to a delignification of 78.5% (by weight) of the parent lignin content, which accounted for 11.8wt% on dry biomass basis; this compares to a yield of 3.35wt% for the conventional H2SO4 pre-treatment method under similar conditions. Conclusion: This work is a first step to demonstrate the potential of innovative microwave methods to overcome the high cost of acid extraction of lignin from biomass waste.
Noise Elimination in Fingerprint Image Using Median Filter

------------------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT --------------------------------------------------------------- Fingerprint recognition is a promising factor for the Biometric Identification and authentication process. The quality of the fingerprint is obtained by the noise free image. To get a noise-free fingerprint image, the pre-processing techniques are applied on image. In this paper, we described the finger print classifications, characteristics and preprocessing techniques. We applied the histogram on 256 gray scale finger print image with the default threshold value; then the histogram-equalized image is obtained. Next, histogram-equalized image is given under the binarization process. Finally the binarized fingerprint image is filtered with the implementation of the Median filtering technique in order to produce the noise free image. The comparison of the median filtered image with the original noisy image shows the depth of the noise spread in the original image. The experimental result shows the noise rate which was eliminated in the input fingerprint image and quality of the filtered image using the Statistical –Correlation tool.
Twelve-week monotherapy with the DPP-4 inhibitor vildagliptin improves glycemic control in subjects with type 2 diabetes.

UNLABELLED Inhibition of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 enhances the activity of incretin hormones, improving glycemic control in subjects with type 2 diabetes. This twelve-week randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled study assessed the efficacy and tolerability of the specific and potent oral dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor, vildagliptin (25 mg, bid, n=70) VS. placebo (bid, n=28) in previously diet-treated subjects with type 2 diabetes. Standardized meal tests were performed at baseline and endpoint. The between-group difference in adjusted mean change in HbA1c from baseline to endpoint was - 0.6 +/- 0.2 % (p=0.0012) for the whole cohort (baseline 8.0 %) and -1.2 % for subjects with baseline HbA1c 8.0 - 9.5 %. Fasting glucose and mean prandial glucose were reduced by 1.1 +/- 0.4 (p=0.0043) and 1.9 +/- 0.5 mmol/l (p <0.0001), respectively. The between-group differences in corrected insulin response at peak glucose and mean prandial C-peptide were + 0.06 +/- 0.02 (p=0.0258) and + 0.10 +/- 0.03 nmol/l (p=0.0031), respectively. Vildagliptin had no effect on fasting lipid levels or body weight. The incidence of adverse events was similar in subjects receiving placebo (71.4 %) and vildagliptin (55.7 %). CONCLUSION monotherapy with vildagliptin is well tolerated and improves glycemic control in diet-treated subjects with type 2 diabetes. Concomitant improvements in beta-cell function were also observed. Subjects with higher baseline HbA1c levels showed greater response.
Deep Growing Learning

Semi-supervised learning (SSL) is an import paradigm to make full use of a large amount of unlabeled data in machine learning. A bottleneck of SSL is the overfitting problem when training over the limited labeled data, especially on a complex model like a deep neural network. To get around this bottleneck, we propose a bio-inspired SSL framework on deep neural network, namely Deep Growing Learning (DGL). Specifically, we formulate the SSL as an EM-like process, where the deep network alternately iterates between automatically growing convolutional layers and selecting reliable pseudo-labeled data for training. The DGL guarantees that a shallow neural network is trained with labeled data, while a deeper neural network is trained with growing amount of reliable pseudo-labeled data, so as to alleviate the overfitting problem. Experiments on different visual recognition tasks have verified the effectiveness of DGL.
Algorithms and Lower Bounds for Threshold Circuits

A fundamental purpose of theory of computation is to understand differences between uniform computation and nonuniform one. In particular, Boolean circuit has been studied in an area of nonuniform computation models, because Boolean circuits are natural formalization of computer architecture and hardware. Boolean circuit is compared with uniform computation expressed as fixed size programs which run for an arbitrary input length. In the computational complexity theory, cost of non-uniform computation is measured through infinite family of Boolean circuits. Proving computational limitations of Boolean circuits is an extremely important and challenging task in the theoretical computer science. A remarkable recent result about satisfiability algorithms is a nontrivial algorithm for testing satisfiability of depth two sparse threshold circuits which have linear number of wires by Impagliazzo et. al. In this thesis, we construct a nontrivial algorithm for a larger class of circuits. We give a nontrivial circuit satisfiability algorithm for a class of circuits which may not be sparse in gates with dependency. Two gates in a circuit are dependent, if the output of the one is always greater than or equal to the other one. An independent gate set is a set of gates in which two arbitrary gates are not dependent. In our setting, the number of restrictions to bottom level gates is bounded above because of dependency of bottom gates. We first define some partial order on the set of bottom gates. Next, we define a problem: for given a pair of a circuit and a Hasse diagram relating with the circuit, output YES if and only if the circuit is satisfiable. Because of an upper bound on the expected number of restrictions to bottom level gates, the running time of the randomized algorithm is faster than the complexity of the trivial exhaustive search. Recently, Williams proved a separation between NEXP and ACC ◦ THR, where an ACC ◦ THR circuit has a single layer of threshold gates at the bottom and an ACC circuit at the top. Two main ideas of his strategy are a closure property of circuit class and an algorithm for counting satisfying assignments of circuits. In this thesis, we show that this general scheme based on these two ideas can be applied for a certain class of circuits with multilayer of threshold gates. The circuit class we give has the symmetric gate at the top and poly-log layers of threshold gates to which an extra condition on the dependency is imposed. We show that, if the size of a maximum independent gate set of each layer of threshold gates is at most n for sufficiently small γ > 0, then two key ingredients needed to apply his strategy can be established. We also give a result about lower bounds against NEXP, extending the results by Williams.
Sending Mixed Messages: Investor Interpretations of Disclosures of Analyst Stock Ownership

Sell-side securities analysts who recommend stocks that they own have a conflict of interest. If investors buy the stocks in response to the analysts’ recommendations, the stocks’ prices will rise, increasing the analysts’ personal wealth. Thus, analysts are legally required to disclose financial interests in securities of companies they cover. However, investors might view this disclosure favorably – for example, as a sign of the analyst’s confidence in the stock – rather than unfavorably as the law intends. This article presents the results of an experiment indicating that investors view analyst stock ownership more unfavorably than favorably. In addition, the experiment’s results suggest that disclosures that also briefly explain why analyst stock ownership creates a conflict of interest would lead investors to view it even more unfavorably.
VASCO: visualizing and animating spatial constructs and operations

A video is used to demonstrate a set of spatial index JAVA applets that enable users on the worldwide web to experiment with a number of variants of the quadtree spatial data structure for different spatial data types, and, most importantly, enable them to see in an animated manner how a number of basic search operations are executed for them. The spatial data types are points, line segments, rectangles, and regions. The search operations are the window query (i.e., a spatial range query) and a nearest neighbor query that enables ranking spatial objects in the order of their distance from a given query object. The representations and algorithms are visualized and animated in a consistent manner using the same primitives and colors so that the differences between the effects of the representations can be easily understood. The video demonstrates the PR quadtree, PM1 quadtree, and R-tree. The applets can be found at: www.cs. umd.edu/~hjs/quadtree/.
MASTER Design & implementation of a performance management system

Disclaimer This document contains a student thesis (bachelor's or master's), as authored by a student at Eindhoven University of Technology. Student theses are made available in the TU/e repository upon obtaining the required degree. The grade received is not published on the document as presented in the repository. The required complexity or quality of research of student theses may vary by program, and the required minimum study period may vary in duration.
A density-based clustering over evolving heterogeneous data stream

Data stream clustering is an importance issue in data stream mining. In most of the existing algorithms, only the continuous features are used for clustering. In this paper, we introduce an algorithm HDenStream for clustering data stream with heterogeneous features. The HDenstream is also a density-based algorithm, so it is capable enough to cluster arbitrary shapes and handle outliers. Theoretic analysis and experimental results show that HDenStream is effective and efficient.
Seismic Design of Reinforced Concrete and Masonry Buildings

Causes and Effects of Earthquakes: Seismicity--Structural Response--Seismic Action. Principles of Member Design. Reinforced Concrete Ductile Frames. Structural Walls. Dual Systems. Masonry Structures. Reinforced Concrete Buildings with Restricted Ductility. Foundation Structures. Appendices. Symbols. References. Index.
Evolutionary Fuzzy Modeling Human Diagnostic Decisions

Abstract: Fuzzy CoCo is a methodology, combining fuzzy logic and evolutionary computation, for constructing systems able to accurately predict the outcome of a human decision‐making process, while providing an understandable explanation of the underlying reasoning. Fuzzy logic provides a formal framework for constructing systems exhibiting both good numeric performance (accuracy) and linguistic representation (interpretability). However, fuzzy modeling—meaning the construction of fuzzy systems—is an arduous task, demanding the identification of many parameters. To solve it, we use evolutionary computation techniques (specifically cooperative coevolution), which are widely used to search for adequate solutions in complex spaces. We have successfully applied the algorithm to model the decision processes involved in two breast cancer diagnostic problems, the WBCD problem and the Catalonia mammography interpretation problem, obtaining systems both of high performance and high interpretability. For the Catalonia problem, an evolved system was embedded within a Web‐based tool—called COBRA—for aiding radiologists in mammography interpretation.
Vessel tree extraction using locally optimal paths

This paper proposes a method to extract vessel trees by continually extending detected branches with locally optimal paths. Our approach uses a cost function from a multiscale vessel enhancement filter. Optimal paths are selected based on rules that take into account the geometric characteristics of the vessel tree. Experiments were performed on 10 low dose chest CT scans for which the pulmonary vessel trees were extracted. The proposed method is shown to extract a better connected vessel tree and extract more of the small peripheral vessels in comparison to applying a threshold on the output of the vessel enhancement filter.
Tree Indexing on Flash Disks

Large flash disks have become an attractive alternative to magnetic hard disks, due to their high random read performance, low energy consumption and other features. However, writes, especially random writes, on the flash disk are inherently much slower than reads because of the erase-before-write mechanism. To address this asymmetry of read-write speeds in indexing on the flash disk, we propose the FD-tree, a tree index designed with the logarithmic method and fractional cascading techniques. With the logarithmic method, an FD-tree consists of the head tree – a small B+-tree on the top, and a few levels of sorted runs of increasing sizes at the bottom. This design is write-optimized for the flash disk; in particular, an index search will potentially go through more levels or visit more nodes, but random writes are limited to the head tree and are subsequently transformed into sequential ones through merging into the lower runs. With the fractional cascading technique, we store pointers, called fences, in lower level runs to speed up the search. We evaluate the FD-tree in comparison with representative B+-tree variants under a variety of workloads. Our results show that the FD-tree has a similar search performance to the standard B+-tree, and a similar update performance to the write-optimized B+-tree variant. As a result, FD-tree outperforms all these B+-tree index variants on both update- and search-intensive workloads.
Infliximab for Crohn's disease in clinical practice at the Mayo Clinic: the first 100 patients

OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to report the clinical outcome and adverse events in the first 100 patients with refractory inflammatory and/or fistulizing Crohn's disease treated with infliximab at the Mayo Clinic.METHODS:Patient data was abstracted from medical records. Clinical response was classified as complete response, partial response, and nonresponse.RESULTS:Indications for infliximab therapy were: inflammatory disease (61 patients), fistulizing disease (26 patients), or both (13 patients). Patients received one to seven infusions of infliximab (5 mg/kg) for a total of 242 infusions. In all, 50 patients had complete response, 22 had partial response, and 28 had nonresponse. Median time to response was 7 days (range 1–21 days). Median duration of response was 10.3 weeks (range 3–25 wk). A total of 95 patients received concomitant treatment with immune modifiers. Steroid withdrawal was possible in 29/40 patients (73%). Median time of follow-up was 34 wk (range 14–48 wk). Clinically significant adverse events after infliximab included: abscess formation in two patients (perianal, peristomal), pneumonia in two patients, varicella zoster in three patients, candida esophagitis in one patient, and infusion-related reactions in 19 patients. A total of 23 patients were continued on infliximab as maintenance treatment.CONCLUSIONS:This study provides additional evidence that infliximab is safe and beneficial in clinical practice for refractory Crohn's disease.
Finite-time convergent gradient flowswith applications to motion coordination ?

This paper introduces the normalized and signed gradient dynamical systems associated with a differentiable function. Extending recent results on nonsmooth stability analysis, we characterize their asymptotic convergence properties and identify conditions that guarantee finite-time convergence. We discuss the application of the results to the design of multi-agent coordination algorithms, paying special attention to their scalability properties. Finally, we consider network consensus problems and show how the proposed nonsmooth gradient flows achieve the desired coordination task in finite time.
Clinical utility of targeted treatments in the management of epithelial ovarian cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer is typically found in its advanced stages, where a combination of surgical debulking and platinum/taxane-based chemotherapy is recommended. Although over 70%–80% of patients achieve remission, a significant proportion develop recurrence of their disease. Additional cytotoxic chemotherapy, as well as surgery, is typically used to manage disease recurrence. Therapies that target specific pathways in cancer cells are rapidly developing in the laboratory and are increasingly being studied in patients with ovarian cancer. We review the current status of novel therapies in the management of epithelial ovarian cancer.
Review of research and development of switched reluctance motor for hybrid electrical vehicle

Research and development of a switched reluctance motor and a generator for hybrid vehicle application in the authors' laboratory have been reviewed. Some keys to achieve high torque density, high efficiency, enhanced output, but reduced rms current have been presented. Comparison of efficiency distribution with respect to PM motor is presented. A similar competitive switched reluctance generator with respect to rare-earth PM generator has been investigated. It is found that switched reluctance motor is better, if idling iron loss is considered in operation. Two methods to reduce the acoustic noise are presented. One is to have cylindrical rotor outer shape to reduce windage noise. Another is novel current waveform to make radial force sum constant.
New employment regimes in cities: the impact on immigrant workers.

"The major cities of highly developed countries exhibit marked changes in job supplies and employment relations. It is frequently held that post-industrial societies require plentiful supplies of highly educated workers and will hold no openings for the low skilled. It is this latter category of jobs that immigrants have tended to fill in recent decades. Empirical data on major cities in advanced economies negate this supposition, revealing that there is an ongoing demand for immigrant labour and a continuing stream of employment opportunities which do not require high educational levels and which pay low wages. The article examines whether this job supply is merely a residue, to some extent augmented by the supply of low wage workers themselves, or whether it is a feature of a reconfigured labour market in advanced urban economies, i.e. a systemic development. "
The Intersection between Sex Work and Reproductive Health in Northern Karnataka, India: Identifying Gaps and Opportunities in the Context of HIV Prevention

Objective. To examine the reproductive health practices of female sex workers (FSWs) in the context of an HIV prevention program in Karnataka, India. Methods. Data obtained from a survey of 1,011 FSWs registered with an HIV prevention program. We examined reproductive health indicators, and performed multivariate logistic regression among primiparous FSWs to assess sex work during pregnancy and antenatal HIV testing. Results. Among primiparous FSWs (N = 251), 92.0% continued sex work during pregnancy, and 55.4% received antenatal HIV testing. A longer duration in sex work (AOR 2.7, 95% CI: 1.0–7.5), rural residence (AOR 3.3, 95% CI: 1.2–8.9), and antenatal HIV testing (AOR 6.3, 95% CI: 2.0–20.1) were associated with continued sex work during pregnancy. Older FSWs (age >25 years, AOR 0.12, 95% CI: 0.05–0.33), who delivered at home (AOR 0.14, 95% CI: 0.09–0.34), were least likely to receive antenatal HIV testing. Antenatal HIV testing was associated with awareness of methods to prevent vertical HIV transmission (AOR 3.9, 95% CI: 1.9–14.1). Conclusions. Antenatal HIV testing remains low in the context of ongoing sex work during pregnancy. Existing HIV prevention programs are well positioned to immediately integrate reproductive health care with HIV interventions targeted to FSWs.
Premature Thymic Involution and Multiple Sclerosis

It is uncertain as to whether similar or different mechanisms contribute to different subtypes of multiple sclerosis (MS). A unifying concept proposes that patients with both relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and primary progressive MS (PPMS) have premature thymic involution, which alters peripheral T-cell homeostasis and leads to T-cell alterations that contribute to the pathogenesis of both MS subtypes.
Efficient Implementation of Public Key Cryptosystems on MIC Az and TelosB Motes

Even though symmetric-key scheme, which has been investigated extensively for sensor networks, can fulfill many security requirements, public-key cryptog raphy is more flexible and simple rendering a clean interface for the security component. Against the popular belief that public key scheme is not practical for sensor networks, this technical report descr ibes the RSA and ECC public-key cryptosystem implementation in the real world sensor devices. We detail the implementation of 1024-bit RSA and 160-bit ECC cryptosystems on MICAz sensor motes, the latest product of Crossbow in the MICA family. We evaluate the performance of our implementation by running the public key and the private key operations in RSA cryptosystem, and signature generation and verification in ECC cryptosystem. We have achieved the performance of 0.79 second for RSA public key operation and 1.3 seconds for ECC signature generation. For comparison, we show our new ECC implementation on TelosB motes with a signature time 1.60s and a verification time 3.30s. We also ex plain the reasons that TelosB mote can not perform better than MICAz even though it is equipped with a 16-bit CPU. We believe that the experiment results are encouraging, and RSA and ECC are getting closer to be practially implemented in the sensor motes in the real world.
Cellular Interaction of Integrin α3β1 with Laminin 5 Promotes Gap Junctional Communication

Wounding of skin activates epidermal cell migration over exposed dermal collagen and fibronectin and over laminin 5 secreted into the provisional basement membrane. Gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) has been proposed to integrate the individual motile cells into a synchronized colony. We found that outgrowths of human keratinocytes in wounds or epibole cultures display parallel changes in the expression of laminin 5, integrin α3β1, E-cadherin, and the gap junctional protein connexin 43. Adhesion of keratinocytes on laminin 5, collagen, and fibronectin was found to differentially regulate GJIC. When keratinocytes were adhered on laminin 5, both structural (assembly of connexin 43 in gap junctions) and functional (dye transfer) assays showed a two- to threefold increase compared with collagen and five- to eightfold over fibronectin. Based on studies with immobilized integrin antibody and integrin-transfected Chinese hamster ovary cells, the interaction of integrin α3β1 with laminin 5 was sufficient to promote GJIC. Mapping of intermediate steps in the pathway linking α3β1–laminin 5 interactions to GJIC indicated that protein trafficking and Rho signaling were both required. We suggest that adhesion of epithelial cells to laminin 5 in the basement membrane via α3β1 promotes GJIC that integrates individual cells into synchronized epiboles.