Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Title Finite element study of the mechanical response in spinalcord during the thoracolumbar burst fracture

Background: The mechanical response of the spinal cord during burst fracture was seldom quantitatively addressed and only few studies look into the internal strain of the white and grey matters within the spinal cord during thoracolumbar burst fracture (TLBF). The aim of the study is to investigate the mechanical response of the spinal cord during TLBF and correlate the percent canal compromise (PCC) with the strain in the spinal cord. Methodology/Principal Findings: A three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model of human T12-L1 spinal cord with visco-elastic property was generated based on the transverse sections images of spinal cord, and the model was validated against published literatures under static uniaxial tension and compression. With the validated model, a TLBF simulation was performed to compute the mechanical strain in the spinal cord with the PCC. Linear regressions between PCC and strain in the spinal cord show that at the initial stage, with the PCC at 20%, and 45%, the corresponding mechanical strains in ventral grey, dorsal grey, ventral white, dorsal white matters were 0.06, 0.04, 0.12, 0.06, and increased to 0.14, 0.12, 0.23, and 0.13, respectively. At the recoiled stage, when the PCC was decreased from 45% to 20%, the corresponding strains were reduced to 0.03, 0.02, 0.04 and 0.03. The strain was correlated well with PCC. Conclusions/Significance: The simulation shows that the strain in the spinal cord correlated well with the PCC, and the mechanical strains in the ventral regions are higher than those in the dorsal regions of spinal cord tissue during burst fracture, suggesting that the ventral regions of the spinal cord may susceptible to injury than the dorsal regions. Citation: Yan Y-B, Qi W, Wu Z-X, Qiu T-X, Teo E-C, et al. (2012) Finite Element Study of the Mechanical Response in Spinal Cord during the Thoracolumbar Burst Fracture. PLoS ONE 7(9): e41397. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0041397 Editor: Allen Waziri, University of Colorado School of Medicine, United States of America Received December 14, 2011; Accepted June 25, 2012; Published September 24, 2012 Copyright: 2012 Yan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: No current external funding sources for this study. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: leiwei@fmmu.edu. cn . These authors contributed equally to this work.
Intermedin induces loss of coronary microvascular endothelial barrier via derangement of actin cytoskeleton: role of RhoA and Rac1.

AIMS Intermedin (IMD) is a novel member of the calcitonin gene-related peptide family, which acts via calcitonin receptor-like receptors (CLRs), mediating activation of cAMP signalling. The main objective of the present study was to analyse the molecular mechanisms of the differential effects of IMD on the macromolecule permeability of endothelial cells of different vascular beds. METHODS AND RESULTS Here we demonstrate that IMD increases permeability of rat coronary microvascular endothelial cells (RCECs) and reduces permeability of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and rat aortic endothelial cells via CLRs and cAMP. Intermedin causes a derangement of the actin cytoskeleton accompanied by loss of vascular endothelial cadherin (VE-cadherin) in RCECs, while it causes a rearrangement of the actin cytoskeleton and VE-cadherin at cell-cell junctions in HUVECs. Intermedin inactivates the RhoA/Rho-kinase (Rock) pathway in both cell types; however, it inactivates Rac1 in RCECs but not in HUVECs. Inhibition and rescue experiments demonstrate that both RhoA and Rac1 are required for the RCEC barrier stability, while in HUVECs the inhibition of RhoA/Rock signalling does not interfere with basal permeability. CONCLUSION The opposite effects of IMD on permeability of RCECs and HUVECs are due to differential regulation of actin cytoskeleton dynamics via RhoA and Rac1. Moreover, Rac1 activity is regulated by the RhoA/Rock pathway in RCECs but not in HUVECs.
Temporal Runtime Verification using Monadic Difference Logic

In this paper we present an algorithm for performing runtime verification of a bounded temporal logic over timed runs. The algorithm consists of three elements. First, the bounded temporal formula to be verified is translated into a monadic first-order logic over difference inequalities, which we call monadic difference logic. Second, at each step of the timed run, the monadic difference formula is modified by computing a quotient with the state and time of that step. Third, the resulting formula is checked for being a tautology or being unsatisfiable by a decision procedure for monadic difference logic. We further provide a simple decision procedure for monadic difference logic based on the data structure Difference Decision Diagrams. The algorithm is complete in a very strong sense on a subclass of temporal formulae characterized as homogeneously monadic and it is approximate on other formulae. The approximation comes from the fact that not all unsatisfiable or tautological formulae are recognised at the earliest possible time of the runtime verification. Contrary to existing approaches, the presented algorithms do not work by syntactic rewriting but employ efficient decision structures which make them applicable in real applications within for instance business software.
On the Kolmogorov-Chaitin Complexity for short sequences

A drawback of Kolmogorov-Chaitin complexity (K) as a function from s to the shortest program producing s is its noncomputability which limits its range of applicability. Moreover, when strings are short, the dependence of K on a particular universal Turing machine U can be arbitrary. In practice one can approximate it by computable compression methods. However, such compression methods do not always provide meaningful approximations--for strings shorter, for example, than typical compiler lengths. In this paper we suggest an empirical approach to overcome this difficulty and to obtain a stable definition of the Kolmogorov-Chaitin complexity for short sequences. Additionally, a correlation in terms of distribution frequencies was found across the output of two models of abstract machines, namely unidimensional cellular automata and deterministic Turing machine.
On Multiflows in Random Unit-Disk Graphs, and the Capacity of Some Wireless Networks

We consider the capacity problem for wireless networks. Networks are modeled as random unit-disk graphs, and the capacity problem is formulated as one of finding the maximum value of a multicommodity flow. In this paper, we develop a proof technique based on which we are able to obtain a tight characterization of the solution to the linear program associated with the multiflow problem, to within constants independent of network size. We also use this proof method to analyze network capacity for a variety of transmitter/receiver architectures, for which we obtain some conclusive results. These results contain as a special case (and strengthen) those of Gupta and Kumar for random networks, for which a new derivation is provided using only elementary counting and discrete probability tools.
Connection state overhead in a dynamic linear network

We consider a dynamical linear network where nearest neighbours communicate via links whose states form binary (open/closed) valued independent and identically distributed Markov processes. Our main result is the tight information-theoretic lower bound on the network traffic required by the connection state overhead, or the information required for all nodes to know their connected neighbourhood. These results, and especially their possible generalisations to more realistic network models, could give us valuable understanding of the unavoidable protocol overheads in rapidly changing Ad hoc and sensor networks.
Single-Exclusion Number and the Stopping Redundancy of MDS Codes

For a linear block code C, its stopping redundancy is defined as the smallest number of check nodes in a Tanner graph for C, such that there exist no stopping sets of size smaller than the minimum distance of C. Schwartz and Vardy conjectured that the stopping redundancy of a maximum-distance separable (MDS) code should only depend on its length and minimum distance. We define the (n, t)-single-exclusion number, S(n, t) as the smallest number of i-subsets of an n-set, such that for each i-subset of the n-set, i =1,. ,t + 1, there exists a i-subset that contains all but one element of the i-subset. New upper bounds on the single-exclusion number are obtained via probabilistic methods, recurrent inequalities, as well as explicit constructions. The new bounds are used to better understand the stopping redundancy of MDS codes. In particular, it is shown that for [n, k = n - d + 1, d] MDS codes, as n rarr infin , the stopping redundancy is asymptotic to S(n, d - 2), if d = o(radic(n)), or if k = o(radic(n)), k rarr infin, thus giving partial confirmation of the Schwartz-Vardy conjecture in the asymptotic sense.
Edge information based effective intra mode decision algorithm

In this paper, we present very simple, yet efficient, algorithms for intra mode decision algorithms in AVS video coding based on edges detection and neural network. The technique uses the SOBEL operator to check the edge information from the total image before its intra prediction. Then the prediction mode of each 8×8 block can be decided based on its edges. In our paper, we design two schemes to decide the intra mode. In our first method, the intra mode is determined by compare the total number the feature points in each sub-blocks. It can save the encoding time of AVS part 2 between 30 to 40%. It is a very fast method, but the bit stream is correspondingly increased. To reduce the gain of the bit rate, we design another effective method employing neural network classifier which trained by the edge points to decide the mode of the block for AVS intra prediction. Because only one prediction mode is chosen for RDO calculation using the proposed algorithm, simulation results also show that the proposed scheme achieves up to 9% computational saving with no video quality degradation, compared with results of the existing method.
Mechanism of Two Classes of Cancer Mutations in the Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase Catalytic Subunit

Many human cancers involve up-regulation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase PI3Kα, with oncogenic mutations identified in both the p110α catalytic and the p85α regulatory subunits. We used crystallographic and biochemical approaches to gain insight into activating mutations in two noncatalytic p110α domains—the adaptor-binding and the helical domains. A structure of the adaptor-binding domain of p110α in a complex with the p85α inter–Src homology 2 (inter-SH2) domain shows that oncogenic mutations in the adaptor-binding domain are not at the inter-SH2 interface but in a polar surface patch that is a plausible docking site for other domains in the holo p110/p85 complex. We also examined helical domain mutations and found that the Glu545 to Lys545 (E545K) oncogenic mutant disrupts an inhibitory charge-charge interaction with the p85 N-terminal SH2 domain. These studies extend our understanding of the architecture of PI3Ks and provide insight into how two classes of mutations that cause a gain in function can lead to cancer.
Reduced Area Low Power High Throughput BCD Adders for IEEE 754r Format

IEEE 754r is the ongoing revision to the IEEE 754 floating point standard and a major enhancement to the standard is the addition of decimal format. Firstly, this paper proposes novel two transistor AND and OR gates. The proposed AND gate has no power supply, thus it can be referred as the Powerless AND gate. Similarly, the proposed two transistor OR gate has no ground and can be referred as Groundless OR. Secondly for IEEE 754r format, two novel BCD adders called carry skip and carry look-ahead BCD adders are also proposed in this paper. In order to design the carry look-ahead BCD adder, a novel 4 bit carry look-ahead adder called NCLA is proposed which forms the basic building block of the proposed carry look-ahead BCD adder. Finally, the proposed two transistors AND and OR gates are used to provide the optimized small area low power high throughput circuitries of the proposed BCD adders.
Lower bounds on locality sensitive hashing

Given a metric space <i>(X,d<sub>X</sub>)</i>, <i>c</i>≥1, <i>r</i>>0, and <i>p,q</i> ≡ [0,1], a distribution over mappings <i>H</i> : <i>X</i> → <i>N</i> is called a <i>(r,cr,p,q)</i>-sensitive hash family if any two points in <i>X</i> at distance at most <i>r</i> are mapped by <i>H</i> to the same value with probability at least <i>p</i>, and any two points at distance greater than <i>cr</i> are mapped by <i>H</i> to the same value with probability at most <i>q</i>. This notion was introduced by Indyk and Motwani in 1998 as the basis for an efficient approximate nearest neighbor search algorithm, and has since been used extensively for this purpose. The performance of these algorithms is governed by the parameter ⊇=log(1/<i>p</i>)/log(1/<i>q</i>), and constructing hash families with small ⊇ automatically yields improved nearest neighbor algorithms. Here we show that for <i>X</i>=<i>l</i><sub>1</sub> it is impossible to achieve ⊇ ≤ 1/2<i>c</i>. This almost matches the construction of Indyk and Motwani which achieves ⊇ ≤ 1/<i>c</i>.
Notes on computing peaks in k-levels and parametric spanning trees

We give an algorithm to compute all the local peaks in the $k$-level o f an arrangement of $n$ lines in $O(n \log n) + \tilde{O}((kn)^{2/3})$ time. We can also find $\tau$ largest peaks in $O(n \log ^2 n) + \tilde{O}((\tau n)^{2/3})$ time. Moreover, we consider the longest edge in a parametric minimum spanning tree (in other words, a bottleneck edge for connectivity), and give an algorithm to compute the parameter value (within a given interval) maximizing/minimizing the length of the longest edge in MST. The time complexity is $\tilde{O}( n^{8/7}k^{1/7} + n k^{1/3})$.
Exemplar-Based Word Sense Disambiguation” Some Recent Improvements

In this paper, we report recent improvements to the exemplar-based learning approach for word sense disambiguation that have achieved higher disambiguation accuracy. By using a larger value of k, the number of nearest neighbors to use for determining the class of a test example, and through 10-fold cross validation to automatically determine the best k, we have obtained improved disambiguation accuracy on a large sense-tagged corpus first used in (Ng and Lee, 1996). The accuracy achieved by our improved exemplar-based classifier is comparable to the accuracy on the same data set obtained by the Naive-Bayes algorithm, which was reported in (Mooney, 1996) to have the highest disambiguation accuracy among seven state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms.
A Petri Net Semantics for Web Service in Choreography Description Language

Web service composition refers to the process of combining several value-added services. It has received much interest in enterprise applications. Web Service Choreography Description Language (WSCDL) is a W3C specification for the description of peer-to-peer collaborations of participants from a global viewpoint. As an XML-based language aimed to become a Web service composition standard for choreography, WSCDL may clarify the opaque points, detect and repair design errors in the language definition, yet provide the theoretical grounding for relative tools development. Petri net is a first-class formal modeling tool that has been widely used in many fields. Based on a Petri net, this paper proposed a formal model that can be used to clarify the semantics of WSCDL and verify some relative properties throughout. The model helps analyze the semantic compatibility between a business process specified in Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) and a WSCDL process.
Outage behavior of slow fading channels with power control using noisy quantized CSIT

The topic of this study is the outage behavior of multiple-antenna slow fading channels with quantized feedback and partial power control. A fixed-rate communicat ion system is considered. It is known from the literature that with error-free feedback, the outage-o ptimal quantizer for power control has a circular structure. Moreover, the diversity gain of the system incre ases polynomially with the cardinality of the power control codebook. Here, a similar system is studied, but when the feedback link is error-prone. We prove that in the high-SNR regime, the optimal quantizer structure with noisy feedback is still circular and the optimal Voronoi regions are contiguous non-zero probability intervals. Furthermore, the optimal power control codebook resembles a channel optimized scalar quantizer (COSQ), i.e., the Voronoi regions merge with erroneous feedback information. Using a COSQ, the outage performance of the system is superior to that of a no-feedback scheme. However, asymptotic analysis shows that the diversity gain of the system is the same as a no-CSIT scheme if there is a non-zero and non-vanishing feedback error probability.
Reducing the Makespan in Hierarchical Reliable Multicast Tree

In hierarchical reliable multicast environment, makespan is the time that is required to fully and successfully transmit a packet from the sender to all receivers. Low makespan is vital for achieving high throughput with a TCP-like window based sending scheme. In hierarchical reliable multicast methods, the number of repair servers and their locations influence the makespan. In this paper we propose a new method to decide the locations of repair servers that can reduce the makespan in hierarchical reliable multicast networks. Our method has a formulation based on mixed integer programming to analyze the makespan minimization problem. A notable aspect of the formulation is that heterogeneous links and packet losses are taken into account in the formulation. Three different heuristics are presented to find the locations of repair servers in reasonable time in the formulation. Through simulations, three heuristics are carefully analyzed and compared on networks with different sizes. We also evaluate our proposals on PGM (Pragmatic General Multicast) reliable multicast protocol using ns-2 simulation. The results show that the our best heuristic is close to the lower bound by a factor of 2.3 in terms of makespan and by a factor of 5.5 in terms of the number of repair servers.
AMILORIDE IN THE TREATMENT OF PRIMARY HYPERALDOSTERONISM AND ESSENTIAL HYPERTENSION

Amiloride (40 mg/day) was given to nineteen patients with primary hyperaldosteronism. There were significant falls in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, in total exchangeable sodium, and in serum sodium and bicarbonate; while total exchangeable potassium, total body potassium, serum potassium, chloride and urea, and plasma renin, angiotensin II and aldosterone all increased significantly. Amiloride was effective in reducing blood pressure in patients with and without adrenocortical adenoma. No carry‐over effect was seen on withdrawing amiloride. Similar changes were associated with amiloride treatment in five patients with essential hypertension; hyperkalaemia was not observed. Only negligible side‐effects were encountered in the entire series of twenty‐four patients.
An Alarming Decline in the Nutritional Quality of Foods: The Biggest Challenge for Future Generations’ Health

In the last sixty years, there has been an alarming decline in food quality and a decrease in a wide variety of nutritionally essential minerals and nutraceutical compounds in imperative fruits, vegetables, and food crops. The potential causes behind the decline in the nutritional quality of foods have been identified worldwide as chaotic mineral nutrient application, the preference for less nutritious cultivars/crops, the use of high-yielding varieties, and agronomic issues associated with a shift from natural farming to chemical farming. Likewise, the rise in atmospheric or synthetically elevated carbon dioxide could contribute to the extensive reductions in the nutritional quality of fruits, vegetables, and food crops. Since ancient times, nutrient-intense crops such as millets, conventional fruits, and vegetables have been broadly grown and are the most important staple food, but the area dedicated to these crops has been declining steadily over the past few decades and hastily after the green revolution era due to their poorer economic competitiveness with major commodities such as high-yielding varieties of potato, tomato, maize, wheat, and rice. The majority of the population in underdeveloped and developing countries have lower immune systems, are severely malnourished, and have multiple nutrient deficiency disorders due to poor dietary intake and less nutritious foods because of ignorance about the importance of our traditional nutrient-rich diets and ecofriendly organic farming methods. This critical review emphasizes the importance of balance and adequate nutrition as well as the need to improve soil biodiversity and fertility: those are main causes behind the decline in nutritional density. There is also emphasis on a possible way out of alleviating the decline nutritional density of food crops for the health and well-being of future generations.
The one-way communication complexity of the Boolean Hidden Matching Problem

We give a tight lower bound of ( p n) for the randomized one-way communication complexity of the Boolean Hidden Matching Problem [BJK04]. Since there is a quantum one-way communication complexity protocol of O(logn) qubits for this problem, we obtain an exponential separation of quantum and classical one-way communication complexity for partial functions. A similar result was independently obtained by Gavinsky, Kempe, de Wolf [GKdW06]. Our lower bound is obtained by Fourier analysis, using the Fourier coecients inequality of Kahn Kalai and Linial [KKL88].
“Older” hotel employees’ perceptions of workplace equality in the UK and Ireland

The population of Europe is ageing. This has repercussions for the hotel industry which has traditionally relied on “younger” workers. Research has demonstrated that more people suffer from age discrimination than any other form of discrimination. Yet, despite a growth of literature concerning workplace equality for “older” people in recent years, there remains a dearth of research into workplace equality in hotels concerning “older” employees. This article attempts to address this gap in knowledge by discussing the views of “older” workers in hotels. This paper will outline the rationale for the study, examine theories of workplace equality, discuss population ageing and its impact on employment and present findings from interviews with “older” hotel workers in the UK and Ireland concerning workplace equality. The paper will conclude by relating theories on workplace equality to the findings of interviews with “older” hotel employees and will give recommendations for further research.
Estimation of design parameters of the Fibonacci-type photobioreactor 5000 L

The presented Fibonacci-type tubular photobioreactor represents a significant advancement over classical tubular photobioreactors. It exhibits notable flexibility in its geometric design with the ability to adapt its parameters to meet the specific photosynthetic requirements of microalgae, thereby achieving maximum efficiency. As a result, it emerges as a viable alternative to conventional tubular systems. Furthermore, the strategy utilized for optimizing the design of Fibonacci-type photobioreactors is also described. This strategy is applied to design a 5000 L reactor, serving as a potential approach to harnessing these reactors for the industrial-scale production of high-value microalgae with commercial significance.