Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multilayer Flexible Metamaterials With Fano Resonances

A set of multilayer flexible metamaterials (MMs), which consist of three layers of parylene C films and three layers of gold split ring resonators (SRRs), was designed and fabricated. The transmission spectra of these MMs were measured in the terahertz (THz) region. Additionally, the structures of SRRs on each layer were changed from symmetric to asymmetric to investigate Fano resonances shown in these MMs. Meanwhile, by changing the thickness of each layer of parylene C, the coupling between different layers and the corresponding spectra change were explored. The results show that increased layers of MMs support new resonant modes and lead to Fano resonances with narrow linewidths in spectra. Therefore, this kind of multilayer flexible MM has potential applications in the THz biomolecule sensing field.
Qualitative Risk Assessment of the Acquisition of Meticillin‐Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Pet Dogs

This article presents a qualitative risk assessment of the acquisition of meticillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in pet dogs, representing an important first step in the exploration of risk of bidirectional MRSA transfer between dogs and humans. A conceptual model of the seven potential pathways for MRSA acquisition in a dog in any given 24‐hour period was developed and the data available to populate that model were considered qualitatively. Humans were found to represent the most important source of MRSA for dogs in both community and veterinary hospital settings. The environment was found to be secondary to humans in terms of importance and other dogs less still. This study highlights some important methodological limitations of a technique that is heavily relied upon for qualitative risk assessments and applies a novel process, the use of relative risk ranking, to enable the generation of a defensible output using a matrix combination approach. Given the limitations of the prescribed methods as applied to the problem under consideration, further validation, or repudiation, of the findings contained herein is called for using a subsequent quantitative assessment.
Statistical Relational Learning: Four Claims and a Survey

made significant progress over the last 5 years. We have successfully demonstrated the feasibility of a number of probabilistic models for rela-tional data, including probabilistic relational models, Bayesian logic programs, and relational probability trees, and the interest in SRL is growing. However, in order to sustain and nurture the growth of SRL as a subfield we need to refocus our efforts on the science of machine learning — moving from demonstrations to comparative and ablation studies. We will outline four assertions that are implicit to SRL research but which have been only minimally evaluated. We hope to stimulate discussion as to how, as a community, these claims can be addressed in future research.
Behavioural and Autonomic Regulation of Response to Sensory Stimuli among Children: A Systematic Review of Relationship and Methodology

Background Previous studies have explored the correlates of behavioural and autonomic regulation of response to sensory stimuli in children; however, a comprehensive review of such relationship is lacking. This systematic review was performed to critically appraise the current evidence on such relationship and describe the methods used in these studies. Methods Online databases were systematically searched for peer-reviewed, full-text articles in the English language between 1999 and 2016, initially screened by title and abstract, and appraised and synthesized by two independent review authors. Results Fourteen Level III-3 cross-sectional studies were included for systematic review, among which six studies explored the relationship between behaviour and physiological regulation of responses to sensory stimuli. Three studies reported significant positive weak correlations among ASD children; however, no correlations were found in typically developing children. Methodological differences related to individual differences among participants, measures used, and varied laboratory experimental setting were noted. Conclusion This review suggests inconclusive evidence supporting the relationship between behavioural and physiological regulation of responses to sensory stimuli among children. Methodological differences may likely have confounded the results of the current evidence. We present methodological recommendations to address this matter for future researches. This trial is registered with PROSPERO registration number CRD42016043887.
Correlates of the Drive for Thinness in Young Female Adolescents

The core feature of anorexia nervosa is considered to be a drive for thinness. In order to try to identify personal and familial correlates of this drive, I studied 68 nonclinic girls ranging in age from 11 to 14 years. The personal attributes examined included body dissatisfaction, ineffectiveness, interoceptive awareness, perfectionism, and depression. The familial factors studied were conflict and independence. The results implicated two of the personal cognitive components as correlates of the drive for thinness, namely, body dissatisfaction and interoceptive awareness. These two variables accounted for 56% of the variance in a stepwise multiple-regression equation.
ProCAM: A Proactive Coordinating Mechanism for Low-Congestion Datacenter Networks

Modern datacenters involve a rich mix of workloads, each of which puts forward different service-level objective, including high throughput, low latency, etc. Currently, most datacenters introduce statistical multiplexing technology and oversubscription to the network design for lowering the total cost, which can easily lead to the occurrence of network congestion (loss), especially when the network is shared by throughput-intensive workloads. This paper describes ProCAM, a proactive congestion avoidance mechanism for datacenter networks. As throughput-intensive flows are the chief culprit of network congestion, ProCAM utilizes the predictability of throughput-intensive flows to prearrange optimal coordinate scheme (desynchronize the sending time of concurrent long-flows) beforehand as a proactive manner, by solving the low-congestion transmission model which minimizes network-wide host-to-host transmission delay from a global perspective. In this way, queue length in buffers can be maintained at a low level and the performance of latency-sensitive flows can be guaranteed. The extensive simulations show that the proposed ProCAM can achieve high throughput with nearly zero packet loss and low latency when the network is heavily loaded.
Changes in Accommodation and Ocular Aberration With Simultaneous Vision Multifocal Contact Lenses

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate ocular aberration changes through different simultaneous vision multifocal contact lenses (CLs). Methods: Eighteen young-adult subjects with a mean age of 29.8±2.11 years took part. Changes in accommodative response, spherical aberration ( ), horizontal coma ( ), vertical coma ( ), and root mean square (RMS) of higher-order aberrations (HOAs, third to sixth orders) were evaluated. Measurements were obtained with a distance-single vision CL and 2 aspheric multifocal CLs of simultaneous focus center-near design (PureVision Low Add and PureVision High Add) for 2 accommodative stimuli (−2.50 and −4.00 D). All measurements were performed monocularly with a Hartmann–Shack aberrometer (IRX-3; Imagine Eyes, Orsay, France). Results: No statistically significant differences were found in accommodative responses to −2.50- and −4.00-D stimuli between the single vision CL and the 2 multifocal CLs. Spherical aberration was found to decrease and become more negative with accommodation for both stimuli with all three CLs. Horizontal coma decreased significantly with accommodation (−2.5- and −4.00-D stimuli) for the distance-single vision CLs (P=0.002 and P=0.003). No differences were found in vertical coma Zernike coefficients. The RMS of HOAs was found to decrease only with the single vision CLs for both stimuli (P<0.01). Conclusions: Data obtained in this study suggest that in young subjects, the multifocal CLs studied do not induce large changes in accommodative response compared with the distance-single vision CLs. Spherical aberration reduced significantly with accommodation.
Music and medicine : The effects of music on the human being

Music may not only improve quality of life but also effect changes in heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). A greater modulation of HR and HRV was shown during musical performance compared to listening to music. Cerebral flow was significantly lower when listening to “Va pensiero” from Verdi’s “Nabucco” (70.4±3.3 cm/s) compared to “Libiam nei lieti calici” from Verdi’s “La Traviata” (70.2±3.1 cm/s) (p<0,02) or Bach’s Cantata No. 169 „ Gott soll allein mein Herze haben“ (70.9±2.9 cm/s) (p<0,02). There was no significant influence on cerebral flow in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony during rest (67.6±3.3 cm/s) or music (69.4±3.1 cm/s). Music significantly decreases the level of anxiety for patients in a preoperative setting compared to midazolam (STAI-X-1 score 36) (p<0.001). Listening to music while resting in bed after open-heart surgery leads to significant differences in cortisol levels between the music (484.4 mmol/l) and the non-music group (618.8 mmol/l) (p<0.02).
Attitude toward the Ad and Brand Choice

Abstract This study examines how attitude toward the ad, Aad, affects brand choice. We investigate the applicability of two contrasting perspectives—an independent or direct effects model and a mediated or indirect effects model. In a lab setting we manipulate (1) a brand's ad picture (good/bad) to affect its Aad and (2) when subjects give their Aad ratings (before/after choice). Choice is operationalized as selecting the best brand based on information contained in a set of ads. The results support the presence of an independent effect of Aad on brand choice. There were no significant timing effects, which suggests that subjects formed Aad during choice without prompting. Directions for future research and implications for advertisers are discussed.
Analysis on the Business Strategy and Policy for the Alternative Fuel Vehicle: Using Stated Preference Data

In this paper, we attempt to analyze consumer preference for the alternative-fuel vehicles based on data from a stated preference using the conjoint analysis. Five possible fuel types (gasoline, diesel, CNG, LPG, Hybrid (electricity+gasoline)) are covered in conjoint cards. To estimate and analyze consumer preference, discrete choice model is used. Specifically, Bayesian mixed logit model is used. Based on estimating results, we discuss the business strategy and policy for the alternative fuel vehicle. To analyze the effect of future technical and policy changes on the demand of alternative fuel vehicles, market simulation is conducted
Performance analysis of media-based cache via analytical and simulation model

Storage has been a performance bottleneck in IO intensive applications for over one decade. To alleviate it, many cost-effective designs of disk subsystems are proposed. Media-based cache (MBC) is one of the recent implementations. This paper addresses the performance model of MBC using analytical approaches and Monte Carlo techniques. In particular, we give a detailed model to capture the characteristics of the general distribution of service times (disk access times) of MBC and we use a modified queuing model of M/G/1/K with multiple vacations to formulate the MBC dynamics. The system throughput and blocking probability under different workload characteristics and system parameters are studied. Essentially, we illustrate how the system parameters affect the MBC performance in different typical scenarios, which may be used as design guidelines for disks.
Image reconstruction in SNR units: A general method for SNR measurement †

The method for phased array image reconstruction of uniform noise images may be used in conjunction with proper image scaling as a means of reconstructing images directly in SNR units. This facilitates accurate and precise SNR measurement on a per pixel basis. This method is applicable to root‐sum‐of‐squares magnitude combining, B1‐weighted combining, and parallel imaging such as SENSE. A procedure for image reconstruction and scaling is presented, and the method for SNR measurement is validated with phantom data. Alternative methods that rely on noise only regions are not appropriate for parallel imaging where the noise level is highly variable across the field‐of‐view. The purpose of this article is to provide a nuts and bolts procedure for calculating scale factors used for reconstructing images directly in SNR units. The procedure includes scaling for noise equivalent bandwidth of digital receivers, FFTs and associated window functions (raw data filters), and array combining. Magn Reson Med, 2005. Published 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Mobilizing the Logic of Managerialism in Professional Fields: The Case of Academic Health Centre Mergers

This paper presents a qualitative inductive analysis of attempts to re-order the bases of legitimacy in fields of professional organizations. Concepts from institutional theory, political science and social movement theory are integrated to provide a model of the antecedents, processes and implications of this phenomenon. Findings from a study of US academic health centre mergers illustrate each element of the model. They show that as part of the political agenda to repress the prevailing institutional logic and structures of professionalism (Scott et al. 2000), executives are expected to adopt certain managerial innovations to maintain organizational legitimacy. Against this new basis of legitimacy, powerful agents have promoted merger so successfully that it has achieved mythical attributes of widespread and uncritical adoption (Meyer and Rowan 1977). The paper explains why the intended outcomes of this innovation emerge rarely when it is `sedimented' (Cooper et al. 1996) uncritically upon enduring aspects of the logic and structures of professionalism.
REVIEW ARTICLE: Secreted Heat Shock Protein gp96‐Ig: An Innovative Vaccine Approach

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are a large family of proteins with different molecular weights and different intracellular localizations. These proteins undertake crucial functions in maintaining cell homeostasis, and therefore they have been conserved during evolution. HSP gp96 also known as glucose‐regulated protein grp94, is the primary chaperone of the endoplasmatic reticulum. Gp96/grp94, because of its peptide chaperone capacity and its ability to interact actively with professional antigen‐presenting cells (APCs), is also endowed with crucial immunological functions such as natural adjuvant for priming innate and adaptive immunity. To make gp96 accessible to the immune system without biochemical purification and without cell lysis, we generated a secreted form of gp96. The immunological properties of secreted gp96 and its implications for vaccine in human cancer and infectious diseases will be discussed.
Disruption and change: drought and the inconspicuous dynamics of garden lives

It is now widely agreed that there is more to sustainable consumption than persuading individuals to make green their brand of choice. Instead, the focus is on how to understand the processes of change, particularly in relation to the transformation of inconspicuous habits. A dominant approach within sustainable consumption research suggests that changing embedded habits and practices requires making them visible and subject to overt decision-making and discussion. An alternative practice-based perspective suggests that enduring change emerges through the amplification of existing social orientations and does not necessarily depend upon explicit contestation and debate. We examine these positions with reference to a detailed study of changing outdoor domestic water consumption habits during the 2006 drought in south-east England. Our analysis of variable responses to the hosepipe ban leads us to suggest that the manner in which disruption generates change in consumption practices is mediated by pre-existing social orientations and by diverse configurations of garden infrastructures and water institutions.
Expression of homeobox gene Hox 1.1 during mouse embryogenesis.

Many of the genes controlling segmentation and pattern formation in Drosophila contain a conserved 183 bp sequence known as the homeobox. Homeobox sequences have been found in a range of metazoan species, including the vertebrates mouse and man. This striking conservation suggests that homeobox genes may play a fundamental role in developmental processes. If this is the case then it might be expected that vertebrate homeobox genes will be differentially expressed during embryogenesis and that the timing of their expression will coincide with major morphogenetic events. Here the spatial and temporal patterns of expression of murine homeobox genes will be explored, concentrating on the Hox 1.1 gene as an example. Using in situ hybridization to localize RNA transcripts, it has been found that Hox 1.1 is expressed in a region-specific manner during the formation and differentiation of the embryonic anteroposterior axis. Although striking patterns of expression of Hox 1.1 and other homeobox genes are seen in overtly segmented structures of the embryo (i.e. somites, prevertebral elements, neural tube and dorsal spinal ganglia) expression is also seen in tissues with no obvious segmental origin. The results suggest that homeobox genes probably do not play an exclusive role in segmentation in vertebrates, but are consistent with a role in the assignment of positional identity along the axis of the embryo.
A Putative Gene Cluster for Aminoarabinose Biosynthesis Is Essential for Burkholderia cenocepacia Viability

ABSTRACT Using a conditional mutagenesis strategy we demonstrate here that a gene cluster encoding putative aminoarabinose (Ara4N) biosynthesis enzymes is essential for the viability of Burkholderia cenocepacia. Loss of viability is associated with dramatic changes in bacterial cell morphology and ultrastructure, increased permeability to propidium iodide, and sensitivity to sodium dodecyl sulfate, suggesting a general cell envelope defect caused by the lack of Ara4N.
Osteopontin alters endothelial and valvular interstitial cell behaviour in calcific aortic valve stenosis through HMGB1 regulation.

OBJECTIVES Calcific aortic valve stenosis (CAVS) is an important clinical problem predominantly affecting elderly individuals. Studies suggest that the progression of CAVS is actively regulated with valve endothelial injury leading to inflammation, fibrosis and calcification. The aim of this study was to delineate the possible regulatory role of osteopontin (OPN) on high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) function and the associated inflammatory and fibrotic response in CAVS. METHODS Aortic valve leaflets were collected from CAVS patients undergoing aortic valve replacement (n = 40), and control aortic valve leaflets were obtained from heart transplant recipients (n = 15). Valves and plasma were analysed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), immunohistochemical staining and Western blot. Recombinant OPN or neutralizing OPN antibody was added to cultured endothelial and valvular interstitial cells (VICs), and cell proliferation scores and HMGB1 expression were assessed. RESULTS CAVS valves had a decreased total percentage of VICs but increased numbers of infiltrating macrophages relative to control valves. RT-PCR studies showed higher expression of OPN, the inflammatory cytokine tumour necrosis factor-alpha as well as markers of fibrosis, tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase 1 and matrix metalloproteinase 2 in CAVS valves. Elevated expression of OPN was also observed in plasma of CAVS patients compared with controls. HMGB1 was detected in the secretory granules of cultured valve endothelial and VICs derived from CAVS valves. The addition of exogenous OPN inhibited the proliferation of cultured endothelial and VICs from CAVS valves and was associated with the extracellular expression of HMGB1, whereas neutralizing OPN had the opposite effect. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that altered OPN expression in CAVS affects cellular HMGB1 function inducing cytoplasmic translocation and secretion of HMGB1 in endothelial cells and VICs, thus indicating a regulatory role for OPN in the progression of CAVS through alteration of HMGB1 function.
Natural Killer Cell Assessment in Peripheral Circulation and Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid of Patients with Severe Sepsis: A Case Control Study

Sepsis is a complex systemic inflammatory syndrome, the most common cause of which is attributed to systemic underlying bacterial infection. The complete mechanisms of the dynamic pro- and anti-inflammatory processes underlying the pathophysiology of sepsis remain poorly understood. Natural killer (NK) cells play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of sepsis, leading to exaggerated inflammation due their rapid response and production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interferon gamma (IFN-γ). Several studies have already shown that NK cells undergo lymphopenia in the peripheral blood of patients with sepsis. However, our understanding of the mechanisms behind its cellular trafficking and its role in disease development is restricted to studies in animal models. In this study, we aimed to compare the human NK cell subset (CD56bright or dim) levels in the peripheral blood and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid of sepsis patients. We conducted a case-control study with a sample size consisting of 10 control patients and 23 sepsis patients enrolled at the Hospital Cajuru (Curitiba/PR, Brazil) from 2013 to 2015. Although we were able to confirm previous observations of peripheral blood lymphopenia, no significant differences were detected in NK cell levels in the BAL fluid of these patients. Overall, these findings strengthened the evidence that peripheral blood lymphopenia is likely to be associated with cell death as a consequence of sepsis.
Mechanical Forces Used for Cell Fractionation Can Create Hybrid Membrane Vesicles

The ability to understand the inner works of the cell requires methods for separation of intracellular membrane-enclosed compartments. Disruption of the plasma membrane (PM) by mechanical forces to investigate the content of the cell is common practice. Whether vesicles or membranes of different sources can fuse as a result is unclear. If such contamination occurs, conclusions based on these techniques should consider these. Utilizing an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane marker and a PM marker, we were able to detect the source of membranes following the breakup of cells using flow cytometry and immuno Electron Microscopy (immuno EM). Fractionation processes produced a small fraction of new membrane entities from two distinctively different origins generated during the initial disruption steps in a temperature independent manner, stressing that defining organelles or intrinsic fusion events based on such procedures and markers are valid when exceeding the small number of vesciles fused during the fractionation process.