Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Study of natural carbonation of concrete incorporating marble dust

This paper describes an experimental investigation on the carbonation of Portland pozzolan cement (PPC) concrete with marble dust (MD). The five PPC concrete mixes containing MD (up to 20%) were prepared with three different water–cement ratios (0·5, 0·6 and 0·7). All the concrete cube specimens were exposed to natural atmospheric carbonation after 28 d of moist curing. It was observed that the use of 10% MD enhanced the compressive strength of concrete and the carbonation coefficient decreased with an increase in MD content.
Involvement of fibrocytes in asthma and clinical implications

Bloodborne fibrocytes are bone marrow‐derived cells that participate in immune responses and exhibit pro‐inflammatory and matrix remodelling properties. In patients with asthma receiving an adequate treatment, the blood fibrocyte count is very low and comparable to that obtained in healthy individuals. In these patients, a transient increase in fibrocyte numbers in the peripheral blood and in the airways occurs in concomitance with increased bronchial inflammation and reflects disease worsening and the need for more intensive treatment. Persistently elevated numbers of fibrocytes in the peripheral blood and in the bronchial mucosa are observed in chronically undertreated or corticosteroid‐resistant asthma and are associated with persistent airway inflammation and ongoing remodelling of the bronchial wall. The asthmatic bronchial epithelium is the main source of fibrocyte chemoattractants in asthma and contributes with T helper type 2 lymphocytes and eosinophils to promote the proliferation and pro‐remodelling function of recruited fibrocytes. The presence of elevated numbers of fibrocytes in the bronchial mucosa of allergic patients with undertreated or treatment‐resistant asthma may also increase the risk of acute exacerbations because these cells can amplify T helper type 2 lymphocyte‐driven inflammation on every exposure to the clinically relevant allergen and can promote further inflammation on rhinovirus infections by allowing viral replication and releasing additional pro‐inflammatory factors. Improved methods for the isolation and functional analysis of pure populations of viable circulating fibrocytes have allowed a better understanding of the effector role of these cells. A reliable and clinically applicable assay has been developed to measure blood fibrocyte counts as outcome measure in future clinical trials. New therapeutic agents are needed to block both persistent inflammation and fibrocytosis in corticosteroid‐resistant asthma.
A fuzzy C-means clustering approach to HMRF-EM model For MRI brain tissue segmentation

The hidden Markov random field (HMRF) model is an efficient method for image segmentation. However, it may not accurately segment a poorly defined image like Magnetic Resonance (MR) brain image. The HMRF model uses an initial estimation for tissue segmentation of MR brain image. The initial estimation of an input image has a large role to play to obtain a robust HMRF model. In general, a hard clustering method is used for initial estimation. However, it is not an efficient technique for the segmentation of a complex and irregular shape image like MR brain image. The method of clustering acts as a preprocessing step in improving the performance of HMRF. It aims at producing a set of concise data in the segmentation of brain tissues. In this paper, we propose a new approach to HMRF model, which incorporates the fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering for the initial estimation of the brain image, which is not found in the literature. This results in efficient segmentation of brain tissues. The results are compared with the spatial FCM clustering algorithm and HMRF model with K-means clustering, using different segmentation evaluation indices. It is seen that the results are better than the other methods.
Research on the design of international student management system

With the increase in the number of international students, the quality of management of international students needs to be improved. So that the management system for international students was developed. We use the information technology to improve management efforts. In this paper, the demand and design process of the students' management system are described. First, the demand for international students is analyzed, the demand acquisition is carried out, the various functional requirements of the student management system is identified, and the function modules are designed in detail by using the classification chart and timing diagram, finally System achieves five functions, including the school management, educational administration, daily management, communication and system management.
Split-Care Patients and Their Caregivers

Abstract This study assessed the experiences of patients receiving split-care treatment, focusing on communication between the two treating professionals and its impact on patient satisfaction. Studies have documented that for more than 20% of patients, no communication occurs between providers, and the present study provides further data. Split-care patients completed a 23-item questionnaire on SurveyMonkey via Mechanical Turk, a crowd-sourcing Website, assessing patients’ split-care experiences, including whether their providers had communicated and the impact of communication on patients’ satisfaction with treatment. Of respondents who knew if their providers communicated, 30% reported that no communication occurred. Similarly, 30% and 36% of respondents were never asked by their psychotherapist or psychopharmacologist, respectively, for permission to speak to the other professional. Non-communication yielded significantly lower patient satisfaction with treatment. This study replicates the high frequency of non-communication between providers of split care and has great implications for the impact of communication on treatment compliance and outcome.
Epstein–Barr virus-associated posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder after allogeneic stem cell transplantation

Purpose of review Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)-associated posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder is an increasingly life-threatening complication after allogeneic stem cell transplantation with the use of more complex transplant procedures. Recent findings Reduced intensity conditioning regimens in combination with in-vivo or ex-vivo T-cell depletion are particularly important risk factors. Prospective monitoring of EBV viremia by real-time quantitative polymerase-chain reaction (PCR) should be performed after high-risk allogeneic stem cell transplantation. However, lack of standardization and concerns about sensitivity and low positive-predictive value challenge the interpretation of PCR monitoring. Preemptive treatment is feasible and can reduce EBV-related mortality but may lead to overtreatment in some patients. Readily available rituximab and methods of adoptive transfer of T-cells are valuable tools. Rituximab is probably the most attractive agent showing the most robust data in this setting. Rituximab seems to offer a good balance between efficacy and toxicity for the treatment of established EBV-associated posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder. But most often there is a need to combine with adoptive immunotherapy with T-cells to maintain long-term disease control, with either simple unmanipulated donor lymphocyte infusion or more specific and complex adoptive EBV-specific cytotoxic T-cells. Summary EBV-associated posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder can often be prevented or treated, especially in earlier stages. The specific role and timing of the different treatment strategies need to be defined.
New Insights into the Microbiota of Moth Pests

In recent years, next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have helped to improve our understanding of the bacterial communities associated with insects, shedding light on their wide taxonomic and functional diversity. To date, little is known about the microbiota of lepidopterans, which includes some of the most damaging agricultural and forest pests worldwide. Studying their microbiota could help us better understand their ecology and offer insights into developing new pest control strategies. In this paper, we review the literature pertaining to the microbiota of lepidopterans with a focus on pests, and highlight potential recurrent patterns regarding microbiota structure and composition.
Supporting Credibility Assessment of News in Social Media using Star Ratings and Alternate Sources

This paper reports findings from a preliminary experiment in which we designed and tested two interface augmentations for enhancing credibility judgments of news stories on Facebook. We find that users' credibility judgments can be improved by the two augmentations, though the changes in credibility scores were not statistically significant. However, participants spent longer using the design that gave them control over the evaluation process, and appeared to be more confident about the choices they made using it - despite the fact that their judgments were actually less accurate. We outline directions for future work based on these findings.
The role of a composite polycarbonate-aerogel face shield in protecting the human brain from blast-induced injury: A fluid–structure interaction (FSI) study

Background Blast-induced traumatic brain injury is the most prevalent injury sustained by combat soldiers at the frontline. The current study aims to investigate the effectiveness of composite polycarbonate-aerogel face shields with different configurations in mitigating blast-induced brain injuries. Method A series of dynamic fluid–structure interaction simulations of a helmeted head subjected to a frontal free field blast was performed, to evaluate the effectiveness of the current conventional polycarbonate face shield and three other composite face shields with different configurations when exposed to a frontal free-field blast. Results The simulation results demonstrated that the sandwiched structured face shields of polycarbonate and aerogel provided superior blast attenuation than a single-layered polycarbonate face shield. The alternate multi-layered transparent materials of high and low densities provided the best attenuation of blast pressure transmission to the head, with the polycarbonate exterior shell casing contributing to the structural integrity of the face shield, while the lower dense aerogel filler providing high acoustic impedance to blast wave transmission. Conclusion This study provides further insights on future development and design of personal protective equipment in mitigating blast-induced injuries to the head.
Cutoff Rate Analysis of Amplify-and-Forward Relay System

We derive in this paper the bit error probability and cutoff rate of an Amplify-and-Forward (AF) relay system operating in Rayleigh fast fading. In our model, we consider the relay thermal noise to be non-negligible and derive a closed form expression to approximate the bit error probability. Our approximated closed form expression matches well with simulation result. Using Chernoff bound, we upper bound its pairwise error probability and we also derive the cutoff rate of the AF relay system.
Amaranthus caudatus lectin with polyproline II fold: conformational and functional transitions and molecular dynamics

Polyproline II (PPII) fold, a peculiar structural element was detected in the Amaranthus caudatus seed lectin (ACL) based on far UV circular dichroism spectrum, conformational transitions of the lectin, and a distinct isodichroic point in thermal denaturation. It was confirmed using PolyprOnline database to estimate the percentage of amino acids contributing to PPII fold and showed the values as 13.5 and 13.9% for PROSS and XTLSSTR, respectively. Investigations of the functional and conformational transitions of ACL during thermal-, pH-, and guanidine hydrochloride (GdnHCl)-induced denaturation were carried out using biochemical and biophysical techniques and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations approach. The lectin got aggregated at 60°C with instantaneous structural alterations. The aggregation-prone regions in ACL were predicted using online servers viz. AGGRESCAN, AmylPred, FoldAmyloid, and Waltz that were represented by Visual Molecular Dynamics tools. Nine conserved regions were identified by these softwares as being ‘hot-spots’ for aggregation. MD simulation studies of the lectin at 60°C revealed increase in radius of gyration. The loss of PPII fold in 2.0 M GdnHCl was reversible. The partially unfolded intermediate of ACL with diminished PPII fold formed at pH 1.0 was stable up to 90°C. The polyproline II fold has been rarely detected in lectins, ACL being the second after the potato lectin.
Renal Artery Stenting in Patients With Uncontrolled Hypertension: Should We? And to Whom?

In this issue of the Journal, Chrysant and colleagues evaluated the longer-term efficacy of renal artery stenting with respect to blood pressure (BP) control by analyzing the results of the Safety and Effectiveness Study of the Herculink Elite Renal Stent to Treat Renal Artery Stenosis (HERCULES) trial after 36 months of follow-up. 1 The HERCULES trial was a multicenter, single-arm trial of 202 patients with uncontrolled hypertension caused by atherosclerotic renovascular disease (ARVD) treated by percutaneous renal artery dilatation and renal stent placement. In the original HERCULES trial, the authors found that the absolute reduction in systolic BP (SBP) after 9 months was related to the severity of the baseline hypertension before intervention. In ARVD patients with preprocedure SBP >180 mm Hg and a postprocedure reduction in SBP, the mean reduction recorded at 9 months was 48 mm Hg, while patients with ARVD with a baseline SBP between 140 mm Hg and 160 mm Hg had a decrease of only 23 mm Hg in SBP at 9 months. In addition, this trial demonstrated excellent procedurerelated safety, with a 30-day composite safety endpoint rate of 1.5%. 2 Chrysant and colleagues further hypothesized that if the renal stent used in the initial HERCULES trial maintained renal artery patency over time, then the clinical benefit confirmed in the initial trial should be sustained over time. Based on this hypothesis, the
New Inference Rules for Max-SAT

Exact Max-SAT solvers, compared with SAT solvers, apply little inference at each node of the proof tree. Commonly used SAT inference rules like unit propagation produce a simplified formula that preserves satisfiability but, unfortunately, solving the Max-SAT problem for the simplified formula is not equivalent to solving it for the original formula. In this paper, we define a number of original inference rules that, besides being applied efficiently, transform Max-SAT instances into equivalent Max-SAT instances which are easier to solve. The soundness of the rules, that can be seen as refinements of unit resolution adapted to Max-SAT, are proved in a novel and simple way via an integer programming transformation. With the aim of finding out how powerful the inference rules are in practice, we have developed a new Max-SAT solver, called MaxSatz, which incorporates those rules, and performed an experimental investigation. The results provide empirical evidence that MaxSatz is very competitive, at least, on random Max-2SAT, random Max-3SAT, Max-Cut, and Graph 3-coloring instances, as well as on the benchmarks from the Max-SAT Evaluation 2006.
Scalability and efficiency in multi-relational data mining

Efficiency and Scalability have always been important concerns in the field of data mining, and are even more so in the multi-relational context, which is inherently more complex. The issue has been receiving an increasing amount of attention during the last few years, and quite a number of theoretical results, algorithms and implementations have been presented that explicitly aim at improving the efficiency and Scalability of multi-relational data mining approaches. With this article we attempt to present a structured overview.
Trajectory planning for manipulators based on the optimal concatenation of LQ control primitives

A trajectory planning method for robotic systems consisting of kinematic chains is introduced based on the concatenation of control primitives. The parameterized, optimal motion primitives are derived from a parametric, linear-quadratic optimal control problem, which is formulated for the input-to-state and input-to-output linearized robot dynamics. The primitives can be concatenated, such that the resulting trajectory is optimal with respect to desired intermediate points. Here, sub-optimal intermediate points are found by a heuristic motion planning algorithm and are iteratively inserted, if necessary, to avoid collisions with obstacles in the robot workspace. All parameters for concatenated primitives are uniquely determined by the solution of a system of parameterized linear equations. In comparison to ordinary approaches based on optimal control, the computational effort for trajectory planning is reduced, since the system of linear equations can be solved on-line by algebraic computations.
Cowpox Virus Transmission from Rats to Monkeys, the Netherlands

We report an outbreak of cowpox virus among monkeys at a sanctuary for exotic animals. Serologic analysis and polymerase chain reaction were performed on blood and swab samples from different rodent species trapped at the sanctuary during the outbreak. Sequence comparison and serologic results showed that brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) transmitted the virus to monkeys.
A new dual active clamp converter with high voltage gain

This paper presents a new topology for dual active clamp converters. The structure is extracted from conventional isolated boost converter based on its symmetrical feature. Two active clamp circuits are adopted, operating in half frequency of the main switching frequency. The proposed converter is compared with the conventional interleaved isolated boost converter. It preserves higher voltage gain while number of switches and diodes are reduced. Simulation results are provided in order to verify the theoretical analysis conducted in this paper.
Translation and silencing in RNA granules: a tale of sand grains

The transcriptome at the synapse consists of thousands of messengers encoding several cellular functions, including a significant number of receptors and ion channels and associated proteins. The concerted translational regulation of all these molecules contributes to the dynamic control of synaptic strength. Cumulative evidence supports that dendritic RNA granules and mRNA-silencing foci play an important role in translational regulation. Several relevant RBPs – FMRP; FUS/TLS; TDP-43; Staufen; Smaug; Pumilio; CPEB; HuD; ZBP1; and DDX6 among others – form granules that contain dormant mRNAs repressed by multiple pathways. Recent reports indicate that dendritic granules may contain stalled polysomes, and furthermore, active translation may occur in association with RNA granules. Here, we discuss the molecules and pathways involved in this continuum of RNA granules that contain masked mRNAs, mRNAs trapped in inactive polysomes or mRNAs engaged in translation.
Secure Sequence Similarity Search on Encrypted Genomic Data

Genomic data is being produced rapidly by both individuals and enterprises and needs to be outsourced from local machines to a cloud for better flexibility. Outsourcing also eliminates the local storage management problem for data owners. However, sensitive data must be encrypted by data owners before outsourcing to protect data privacy and security in the cloud. As genome data is huge in volume, it is challenging to execute researchers' query securely and efficiently. In this paper, we present a prefix tree based indexing algorithm for supporting similar sequence search query. We support Hamming distance as similarity measure. The proposed method adopts semi-honest adversary model for the cloud server. The security of the shared data is guaranteed through encryption while making the overall computation fast and scalable enough for real-life biomedical applications. We evaluated the efficiency of our proposed model on a database of Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) sequences and experimental results demonstrate that a query of hamming distance k = 2 in a database of 10000 records, where each record contains 500 nucleotides, takes approximately 4 minutes.
Disentangling the Cycle: Potential Mediators and Moderators in the Intergenerational Transmission of Parent–Child Aggression

Although a cycle of harsh and abusive parenting has been recognized for decades, this cycle is not inevitable. Indeed, the mechanisms underlying such patterns, and the resources parents may access to disrupt this cycle, require further study. Research investigating those processes has either relied on cross-sectional designs or largely assessed mediators or moderators at one time point. The current investigation of parent–child aggression (PCA) risk utilized a longitudinal design to consider possible mediators and moderators across three time points. Mothers and fathers reported on their personal history of physical and psychological abuse during the last trimester of the mother’s pregnancy; their PCA risk was assessed concurrently when their child was 6 months and when their child was 18 months. Current findings support several mediators for mothers, although fewer for fathers, prenatally, but mediation was not observed across time. Similarly, several moderators of the effect of personal history of physical and psychological aggression on PCA risk were identified prenatally but not across time. Thus, several qualities believed to account for, or mitigate, the intergenerational transmission of PCA may not be consistent—underscoring the continued need to identify factors that account for the cyclical process versus what may interrupt intergenerational transmission.
Acetylation on histone H3 lysine 9 mediates a switch from transcription initiation to elongation

The transition from transcription initiation to elongation is a key regulatory step in gene expression, which requires RNA polymerase II (pol II) to escape promoter proximal pausing on chromatin. Although elongation factors promote pause release leading to transcription elongation, the role of epigenetic modifications during this critical transition step is poorly understood. Two histone marks on histone H3, lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) and lysine 9 acetylation (H3K9ac), co-localize on active gene promoters and are associated with active transcription. H3K4me3 can promote transcription initiation, yet the functional role of H3K9ac is much less understood. We hypothesized that H3K9ac may function downstream of transcription initiation by recruiting proteins important for the next step of transcription. Here, we describe a functional role for H3K9ac in promoting pol II pause release by directly recruiting the super elongation complex (SEC) to chromatin. H3K9ac serves as a substrate for direct binding of the SEC, as does acetylation of histone H4 lysine 5 to a lesser extent. Furthermore, lysine 9 on histone H3 is necessary for maximal pol II pause release through SEC action, and loss of H3K9ac increases the pol II pausing index on a subset of genes in HeLa cells. At select gene promoters, H3K9ac loss or SEC depletion reduces gene expression and increases paused pol II occupancy. We therefore propose that an ordered histone code can promote progression through the transcription cycle, providing new mechanistic insight indicating that SEC recruitment to certain acetylated histones on a subset of genes stimulates the subsequent release of paused pol II needed for transcription elongation.