Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender differences in success at quitting smoking: Short- and long-term outcomes.

Smoking cessation treatments are effective in men and women. However, possible sex-related differences in the outcome of these treatments remain a controversial topic. This study evaluated whether there were differences between men and women in the success of smoking cessation treatment, including gender-tailored components, in the short and long term (> 1 year). A telephone survey was carried out between September 2008 and June 2009 in smokers attended in a Smoking Cessation Clinic. All patients who have successfully completed treatment (3 months) were surveyed by telephone to determine their long-term abstinence. Those who remained abstinent were requested to attend the Smoking Cessation Clinic for biochemical validation (expired CO ≤10 ppm). The probability of remaining abstinent in the long-term was calculated using a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. The treatment success rate at 3-months was 41.3% (538/1302) with no differences by sex 89% (479/538) among those located in the telephonic follow-up study and 47.6% (256/479) were abstinent without differences by sex (p = .519); abstinence was validated with CO less than 10 ppm in 191 of the 256 (53.9% men and 46.1% women). In the survival analysis, the probability of men and women remaining abstinent in the long-term was not significant. There are no differences by sex in the outcome of smoking cessation treatment that included gender-tailored components in the short and long term (> 1 year).
Properties of single wall carbon nanotubes array antennas in the optical regime

Single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) can be metallic, depending on their chirality. For their nanoscale geometric dimension, SWCNTs can be used as antennas to convert high-frequency electromagnetic radiation such as optical radiation into localized energy and vice versa. However, at optical frequencies, traditional antenna design theory fails for metals behave as strongly coupled plasmas. As a matter of fact, an optical antenna responds to a shorter effective wavelength which depends on the material properties and geometric parameters. In this letter, we derived the relationship of effective wavelength with the wavelength of incident radiation for SWCNTs optical antenna, assuming that the SWCNTs can be described by a free electron gas according to the Drude model. SWCNTs optical antenna holds great promise for increasing solar energy conversion efficiency.
Ultraviolet radiation effects

Solar ultraviolet testing was not developed which will provide highly accelerated (20 to 50X) exposures that correlate to flight test data. Additional studies are required to develop an exposure methodology which will assure that accelerated testing can be used for qualification of materials and coatings for long duration space flight. Some conclusions are listed: Solar UV radiation is present in all orbital environments; Solar UV does not change in flux with orbital altitude; UV radiation can degrade most coatings and polymeric films; Laboratory UV simulation methodology is needed for accelerated testing to 20 UV solar constants; Simulation of extreme UV (below 200 nm) is needed to evaluate requirements for EUV in solar simulation.
Toward a Real-time (Day) Dreamcatcher: Detecting Mind Wandering Episodes During Online Reading

This paper reports the results from a sensor-free detector of mind wandering during an online reading task. Features consisted of reading behaviors (e.g., reading time) and textual features (e.g., level of difficulty) extracted from self-paced reading log files. Supervised machine learning was applied to two datasets in order to predict if participants were mind wandering as they navigated from one screen of text to the next. Mind wandering was detected with an accuracy of 20% above chance (Cohen’s kappa = .207; AUC = .609), which was obtained via leave-one-participant-out cross-validation. Similar to actual rates of mind wandering, predicted rates of mind wandering were negatively related to posttest performance, thus providing some evidence for the predictive validity of the detector. Applications of the detector to attention-aware educational interfaces are discussed.
Computed tomogram guided fine-needle aspiration cytology of lung mass with histological correlation: A study in Eastern India

Abstract Background: Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is an important and useful investigation, and is considered next to imaging in the rapid diagnosis of pulmonary mass lesion for the last few decades. Aims: To assess the role of Computed Tomogram (CT) guided FNAC in pulmonary mass lesions; to analyze the results; and to compare with histopathological findings. Materials and Methods: The clinical, radiological, and cytological data of 130 patients were prospectively studied who underwent CT guided FNAC from October 2009 through September 2011. Thereafter these patients underwent bronchoscopic/trucut biopsy/ lobectomy, whatever clinically indicated. Smears and tissue sections were evaluated simultaneously to reach at a definite diagnosis. Results: Out of 130 cases, we found adequate FNAC smear and histopathology reports only in 124 cases. The age range varied from 35 to 73 years with the peak in the fifth to sixth decades. The benign lesions were 10 (8.07%) and malignant lesions were114 (91.93%) shown by cytology. The most common tumor was adenocarcinoma (51.72%) followed by squamous cell carcinoma (22.41%) and small cell carcinoma 6.89%. Diagnostic accuracy of CT guided FNAC was 95%. Post procedural complications such as hemorrhage and chest pain were minimal and were noted only in three cases. Conclusion: CT guided FNAC of pulmonary masses provides simple, easy, and reliable method for reaching rapid tissue diagnosis with minimal complication.
Non Invasive Measurement and Analysis of Cardiac Output for Different Age Group using PPG Sensor

This study provides analysis of reflectance type PPG (Photoplethysmography) sensor using mean square spectrum. Power spectrum shows that absorption of deoxyhaemoglobin and oxyhaemoglobin is maximum for 660nm and 860nm respectively. The reflectance type PPG sensor was designed for two sources of wavelength are 660nm and 860nm and OPT 101 as a detector. Data collection was done for 10 specimen including female and male in the age group of 20 to 45 years. MSS (Mean square spectrum) reflects the power in the signal at a given frequency. The MSS of a signal is the Fourier transform of that signal's autocorrelation. The acquisition of PPG signal was done using microcontroller with 10 bit ADC and was processed in Matlab. The analysis of PPG for 660nm and 860 nm shows that the mean of power for 860nm was greater than mean of power for 660nm (p < 0.05) using t square test in Minitab 17. Oxyhaemoglobin and deoxyhaemoglobin concentration change can be detected by measuring the mean square spectrum for 660nm and 860nm respectively. General Terms PPG signal analysis, Paired t Test Statistical Analysis.
Using Partial Ordered Numbers to Control Information Flows

Information flow control models can be applied widely. This paper discusses only the models preventing information leakage during program execution. In the prevention, an information flow control model dynamically monitors statements that will cause information flows and ban statements that may cause leakage. We involved in the research of information flow control for years and identified that sensitive information may be leaked only when it is output. However, most existing models ignore information flows induced by output statements. We thus designed a new model that especially emphasizes the monitoring of output statements. We also designed the model as a precise and low runtime overhead one. Our experiments show that the model bans every non-secure information flow and substantially reduces runtime overhead when comparing with our previous work.
Routing without regret: on convergence to nash equilibria of regret-minimizing algorithms in routing games

There has been substantial work developing simple, efficient no-regret algorithms for a wide class of repeated decision-making problems including online routing. These are adaptive strategies an individual can use that give strong guarantees on performance even in adversarially-changing environments. There has also been substantial work on analyzing properties of Nash equilibria in routing games. In this paper, we consider the question: if each player in a routing game uses a no-regret strategy, will behavior converge to a Nash equilibrium? In general games the answer to this question is known to be no in a strong sense, but routing games have substantially more structure.In this paper we show that in the Wardrop setting of multicommodity flow and infinitesimal agents, behavior will approach Nash equilibrium (formally, on most days, the cost of the flow will be close to the cost of the cheapest paths possible given that flow) at a rate that depends polynomially on the players' regret bounds and the maximum slope of any latency function. We also show that price-of-anarchy results may be applied to these approximate equilibria, and also consider the finite-size (non-infinitesimal) load-balancing model of Azar [2].
Long-term Preservation of Electronic Literature

Authors have always been looking for new and innovative ways of aesthetical expression and they have been quick to take advantage of the new possibilities, offered by the World Wide Web and the Internet. Today, there is a respectable community – in terms of size and quality – of “digital poets”, who publish their texts in the internet and whose literature above all shares one mutual feature: a prominent and crucial use of computer technologies. Being the cultural heritage for future generations, electronic literature is worth preserving, just as any other form of contemporary literature. Yet, due to its use of interactive and dynamic elements and reliance on the latest technology, contemporary electronic literature is extremely vulnerable and difficult to document. While archives, libraries and museums are still trying to develop preservation strategies for electronic literature, many of the early works have already volatilized. In Germany, two institutions and a cooperative network have joined forces in order to address this challenge concertedly: nestor, the network of expertise in long-term storage of digital resources, the German Literature Archive, and the German National Library.
Substance P injections enhance tissue proliferation and regulate sensory nerve ingrowth in rat tendon repair

Tendon healing is characterized mostly by slow rehabilitation and, as in tendinopathy, aberrant, protracted sensory nerve ingrowth. This study investigated whether administration of the sensory neuropeptide substance P (SP) could enhance healing and modulate sensory nerve plasticity after Achilles tendon rupture. Fifty‐four male Sprague–Dawley rats were allocated to three groups, all receiving six daily injections post‐rupture of; (1) SP (10−6 mol/kg body weight)+endopeptidase inhibitors captopril and thiorphan, (2) captopril/thiorphan only and (3) saline control. At 1, 3 and 6 weeks post‐rupture tendon healing was evaluated by assessments of fibroblast proliferation, collagen III‐LI (like) occurrence, diameter of newly organized collagen and sensory nerve fiber ingrowth. At 1 week, the SP‐treated group exhibited increased occurrence of collagen III‐LI (P=0.03) and of organized collagen (P=0.04) compared with control. At 3 weeks, the SP group notably displayed reduced SP‐nerve fiber ingrowth (P=0.02), and higher fibroblast density (P=0.004). Both the SP and captopril/thiorphan groups demonstrated increase in collagen fiber organization compared with control (P=0.02 and 0.004, respectively). At 6 weeks, no significant differences were observed between the groups. SP supply in tendon repair promotes early tissue proliferation and regulation of endogenous sensory nerve ingrowth, suggesting implications for novel treatment in tendinopathy.
Surface Plasmon Resonance Based on ZnO Nano-grating Structure

We have investigated the grating coupled surface plasmon resonance (GC-SPR) sensors using ZnO nano-grating structures to enhance the sensitivity of an SPR sensor. The GC-SPR sensors were analyzed using the finite-difference time-domain method. The optimum resonance angles of 49 degrees are obtained in the 150 nm wide grating structure with a period of 300 nm for the ZnO thickness of 30 nm. Then, the ZnO nano-grating patterns were fabricated by using laser interference lithography. The measured resonance angle of nano-grating patterns was around 49 degrees. Here, an enhanced evanescent field is obtained due to the surface plasmon on the edge of the bandgap when the ZnO grating structures are used to excite the surface palsmon.
Urine levels of N-[9-(beta-D-ribofuranosyl)purin-6-ylcarbamoyl]-L-threonine, N6-(delta 2-isopentenyl)adenosine, and 2'-O-methylguanosine as determined by radioimmunoassay for normal subjects and cancer patients.

Radioimmunoassays (RIA) are presented for the evaluation of the levels of the following three modified nucleosides in human urine: 2'-O-methylguanosine (Gm), N6-(delta 2-isopentenyl)adenosine (i6A), and N-[9-(beta-D-ribofuranosyl)purin-6-ylcarbamoyl]-L-threonine (t6A). Competitive inhibition of the RIA was provided by 2 to 10 microliters of untreated urine and the sensitivity of each RIA was in the pmol range. Partial fractionation of urine indicated that the majority of inhibitory activity was in the fraction coeluting with a nucleoside standard. The amounts of nucleosides in 24-hr urine samples from eight normal subjects were 2.2 +/- 0.9 mg (S.D.) for t6A; 0.17 +/- 0.09 mg for Gm; and 0.050 +/- 0.019 mg for i6A. The levels of t6A, i6A, and Gm were also determined by RIA of urine samples of patients with lymphomas or solid tumors. Levels of t6A were significantly elevated for patients with lung cancer (p less than 0.001), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (p less than 0.05), and other solid tumors (p less than 0.02) but not for patients with Hodgkin's disease. The RIA data on the other two nucleosides, i6A and Gm, showed no similarly significant variations. Increased levels of t6A in the cancerous state were substantiated by isolating the t6A fraction from the urine of normal subjects of patients with lung cancer and quantitating the amount by use of UV adsorption. These preliminary results indicate that RIA for t6A might be clinically useful by providing a complementary approach to the assessment of the levels of modified nucleosides by gas-liquid or high-performance-liquid chromatography.
Bovine leukemia virus linked to breast cancer in Australian women and identified before breast cancer development

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV), a common virus of cattle globally, was believed for decades not to infect humans. More recent techniques (in situ PCR and DNA sequencing) enabled detection of BLV in human breast tissue, and determination of its significant association with breast cancer in a US population. Using similar techniques to study 96 Australian women, we report here detection of retrotranscribed BLV DNA in breast tissue of 40/50(80%) of women with breast cancer versus 19/46(41%) of women with no history of breast cancer, indicating an age-adjusted odds ratio and confidence interval of 4.72(1.71–13.05). These results corroborate the findings of the previous study of US women with an even higher odds ratio for the Australian population. For 48 of the subjects, paired breast tissue samples, removed 3–10 years apart in two unrelated procedures, were available. For 23/31 (74%) of these, in which the first specimen was diagnosed as nonmalignant (benign or premalignant) and the second as malignant, BLV was already present in benign breast tissue years 3–10 years before the malignancy was diagnosed. This is consistent with the supposition of a causative temporal relationship between BLV infection and subsequent development of cancer.
CMOS technology characterization for analog and RF design

Characterization of CMOS technologies for digital applications often proves inadequate for analog and RF design. This paper describes a set of characterization vehicles and tests that quantify the analog behavior of active and passive devices in CMOS processes, in particular, properties that are not represented accurately in SPICE models. Test structures and circuits are introduced for measuring speed, noise, linearity, loss, matching, and dc characteristics.
Flexible Three‐Axial Force Sensor for Soft and Highly Sensitive Artificial Touch

A soft tactile sensor able to detect both normal and tangential forces is fabricated with a simple method using conductive textile. Owing to the multi-layered architecture, the capacitive-based tactile sensor is highly sensitive (less than 10 mg and 8 μm, for minimal detectable weight and displacement, respectively) within a wide normal force range (potentially up to 27 N (400 kPa)) and natural touch-like tangential force ranges (from about 0.5 N to 1.8 N). Being flexible, soft, and low cost, this sensor represents an original approach in the emulation of natural touch.
Effect of CeO2 cap layers on the preparation of YBCO films on rolling-assisted biaxially textured substrates by pulsed laser deposition

YBCO films were grown on CeO2/YSZ/CeO2 buffered rolling-assisted biaxially textured substrates (RABiTS) by pulsed lased deposition (PLD). CeO2 cap layer was deposited prior to YBCO growth. CeO2 cap layers of different thickness were prepared to evaluate the thickness dependence of the YBCO films. The microstructure and surface morphology of the films were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It is found that the thickness of the cap layer can remarkably affect the preparation of the subsequent YBCO layer. The possible mechanisms responsible for the dependence of the structure and the preparation of the YBCO films on the thickness of the CeO2 cap layers are discussed.
The Effect of Exploration on the Use of Producer-Scrounger Tactics

Individuals foraging in groups can use two different tactics for obtaining food resources. Individuals can either search for food sources themselves (producing) or they can join food discoveries of others (scrounging). In this study we use a genetic algorithm in a spatially explicit producer-scrounger game to explore how individuals compromise between exploration (an important axis of animal personality) and scrounging and how characteristics of the environment affect this compromise. Agents varied in exploration and scrounging and a genetic algorithm searched for the optimal combination of exploration and scrounging. The foraging environments featured different levels of patch richness, predation and patch density. Our simulations show that under conditions of low patch densities slow exploring scroungers were favored whereas high patch density favored fast exploring individuals that either produced (at low patch richness) or scrounged (at high patch richness). In high predation environments fast exploring individuals were selected for but only at low to intermediate patch densities. Predation did not affect scrounging behavior. We did not find a divergence of exploration ‘types’ within a given environment, but there was a general association between exploration and scrounging across different environments: high rates of scrounging were observed over nearly the full spectrum of exploration values, whereas high rates of producing were only observed at high exploration values, suggesting that cases in which slow explorers start producing should be rare. Our results indicate that the spatial arrangement of food resources can affect the optimal social attraction rules between agents, the optimality of foraging tactic and the interaction between both.
Proxy Framework for Enhanced RFID Security and Privacy

Radio frequency IDentification (RFID) is a method of remotely storing and retrieving data using small and inexpensive devices called RFID tags. In this work we propose a proxy agent framework that uses a personal device for privacy enforcement and increased protection against eavesdropping, impersonation and cloning attacks. Using the proxy a user decides when and where information carried in a tag will be released. In particular, the user can put tags under her control, authenticate requests, release tags, transfer them to new owners, and so on. This is the first framework that unifies previous attempts and presents detailed protocols for all the operations required in such a proxy environment.
Spin-Direction Control of High-Order Plasmonic Vortex With Double-Ring Distributed Nanoslits

A plasmonic vortex lens (PVL) consisting of circularly distributed nanoslits is proposed. It is shown that the tilted angle variance of nanoslits along the azimuthal direction gives an opportunity to add an additional orbital angular momentum (OAM) number to the plasmonic vortex. Using the double-ring nanoslit distribution, homogeneous amplitude of excited surface plasmon along the azimuthal angle is achieved. The proposed structure has advantages compared with conventional PVLs since the spin-assisted OAM number can be an arbitrary integer value, which can enable the spin-direction control of high-order plasmonic vortex.
Limits to Forecasting Precision for Outbreaks of Directly Transmitted Diseases

Background Early warning systems for outbreaks of infectious diseases are an important application of the ecological theory of epidemics. A key variable predicted by early warning systems is the final outbreak size. However, for directly transmitted diseases, the stochastic contact process by which outbreaks develop entails fundamental limits to the precision with which the final size can be predicted. Methods and Findings I studied how the expected final outbreak size and the coefficient of variation in the final size of outbreaks scale with control effectiveness and the rate of infectious contacts in the simple stochastic epidemic. As examples, I parameterized this model with data on observed ranges for the basic reproductive ratio (R 0) of nine directly transmitted diseases. I also present results from a new model, the simple stochastic epidemic with delayed-onset intervention, in which an initially supercritical outbreak (R 0 > 1) is brought under control after a delay. Conclusion The coefficient of variation of final outbreak size in the subcritical case (R 0 < 1) will be greater than one for any outbreak in which the removal rate is less than approximately 2.41 times the rate of infectious contacts, implying that for many transmissible diseases precise forecasts of the final outbreak size will be unattainable. In the delayed-onset model, the coefficient of variation (CV) was generally large (CV > 1) and increased with the delay between the start of the epidemic and intervention, and with the average outbreak size. These results suggest that early warning systems for infectious diseases should not focus exclusively on predicting outbreak size but should consider other characteristics of outbreaks such as the timing of disease emergence.