Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthesis and thermal behavior of inorganic–organic hybrid geopolymer composites

Inorganic geopolymer potassium aluminosilicate was prepared at room temperature by the reaction of kaolin, potassium silicate, and potassium hydroxide solution and was dispersed in situ into an epoxy matrix by various proportions to fabricate novel inorganic–organic hybrid geopolymer composites. The formation of inorganic geopolymer with respect to time was monitored by X-ray diffraction and FT-IR analysis and confirmed that 30 min is required to complete the geopolymerization. When geopolymers were properly mixed at different ratios with organic polymers such as epoxy and cured, these hybrid polymers exhibit significant thermal stability. Pure kaolin was also incorporated into the epoxy matrix to compare the change in chemical and thermal properties. Cone calorimetry results showed about 27% decreased in rate of heat release (RHR) on addition of 20% pure kaolin. However, about 57% of RHR was decreased on addition of only 20% geopolymer. Evaluation of CO2 and CO were found to be minimum 2.0 and 0.7 kg/kg, respectively, for hybrid geopolymer composites compared to very high yield for epoxy at 3.5 kg/kg after 200 s of ignition. The current study shows that due to the high thermal stability of hybrid geopolymer composites, the novel hybrid geopolymer composites have the ability to be potential candidates to use in practical application where fire is of great concern. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 96: 112–121, 2005
Relationship between serum osteopontin level and atrial fibrillation recurrence in patients undergoing cryoballoon catheter ablation.

OBJECTIVE Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Atrial fibrosis augments recurrence rate following AF catheter ablation. Osteopontin is a multifunctional molecule involved in several pathophysiological pathways, including fibrosis. Presently described is investigation of relationship between serum osteopontin level and AF recurrence after AF cryoablation. METHODS The study was designed to be prospective and observational; 60 patients with paroxysmal (n=47) and persistent (n=13) AF were included. Osteopontin level was measured both before and 6 months after AF ablation with cryoballoon. RESULTS Preprocedure and postprocedure osteopontin level did not differ between the 2 groups of AF patients (p=0.286, p=0.493, respectively). Postprocedure osteopontin level was significantly higher compared with preprocedure value (32.18 ng/mL vs 15.58 ng/mL; p=<0.001). Left atrial diameter, AF type, and preprocedure osteopontin level were related to AF recurrence (p≤0.05). An age-adjusted multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine independent predictors of AF recurrence. Among these, AF type (ß=2.211; p=0.004; odds ratio [OR]: 9.124; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.026-41.094) was found to be the most important factor related to AF recurrence. Preprocedure osteopontin level also predicted AF recurrence independently (ß=0.059; p=0.048; OR: 1.061; 95% CI 1.001-1.125). CONCLUSION Study results revealed persistency of AF and high preprocedure osteopontin level independently predicted AF recurrence in patients undergoing cryoballoon AF ablation. Association of a biochemical marker with AF recurrence might be beneficial to selection of appropriate patients for cryoballoon procedure and assessment of long-term procedural success.
A holistic framework for the strategic management of first tier managers

– The intention of this research paper is to shed light on the key factors influencing the human resource management (HRM) performance of first tier managers (FTMs), and the vital importance that a holistic strategic framework can have in this regard. , – The research paper uses an up‐to‐date historical approach and, additionally, draws on detailed case study evidence from an aerospace manufacturing/engineering company via manually and electronically analysed in‐depth semi‐structured interview and company documentation. , – The case study findings reveal that the FTM's HRM performance is greatly influenced by a group of four key factors, and their interrelationships. , – The literature survey was mainly industry‐specific (manufacturing), and the sample was restricted to one sector (aerospace), as well as one case study organisation. Furthermore, the views of FTMs' staff are not directly represented. , – The FTMs' HRM role shows no signs of abating; in addition, questions regarding their performance of this role have increasingly emerged. This has become more evident as organisations have continued to expand the FTMs' role by devolving greater HRM responsibilities to them, and their performance of the role demonstrates that many FTMs are ill equipped to perform their HRM duties to the required standard. However, the vital importance that a holistic strategic framework (which encompasses the four key factors influencing their performance) can have on their performance of this role is not acknowledged. The present research paper, gives an empirical example of a case study, and therefore provides a springboard to address the weakness in the literature.
Gaussian process nonparametric tensor estimator and its minimax optimality

We investigate the statistical efficiency of a non-parametric Gaussian process method for a nonlinear tensor estimation problem. Low-rank tensor estimation has been used as a method to learn higher order relations among several data sources in a wide range of applications, such as multitask learning, recommendation systems, and spatiotemporal analysis. We consider a general setting where a common linear tensor learning is extended to a nonlinear learning problem in reproducing kernel Hilbert space and propose a non-parametric Bayesian method based on the Gaussian process method. We prove its statistical convergence rate without assuming any strong convexity, such as restricted strong convexity. Remarkably, it is shown that our convergence rate achieves the minimax optimal rate. We apply our proposed method to multi-task learning and show that our method significantly outperforms existing methods through numerical experiments on real-world data sets.
Versatility and Unix Semantics in a Fan-Out Unification File System

Administrators often prefer to keep related sets of files in different locations or media, as it is easier to maintain those files separately. Users, on the other hand, prefer to see all files in one location for convenience. One solution that accommodates both needs is virtual unification—that is providing a merged view of several directories, without physically merging them. For example, unification can merge the contents of several CD-ROM images without unpacking them, merge binary directories from different packages, merge views from several file servers, and more. Unification can also be used for snapshotting, by marking some data sources read-only and then utilizing copy-on-write for the read-only sources. It is difficult to virtually unify of a set of files while maintaining Unix semantics. Past efforts to provide such unification often compromised on the set of features provided or Unix compatibility. We designed a unification file system called Unionfs which uses a promising fan-out stacking technique rarely used before. Unionfs maintains Unix semantics while offering advanced unification features such as dynamic insertion and removal of namespaces at any point in the unified view, support for any mix of read-only and readwrite components, efficient in-kernel duplicate elimination, and more. Our flexible Unionfs implementation supports traditional unification, snapshotting, and sandboxing. We implemented a prototype of Unionfs on Linux. Our evaluation shows a 2–3% performance overhead for typical user-like workloads.
Role of DNA methylation in cardiovascular diseases

ABSTRACT A complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors is involved in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Environmental factors have crucial effects on the epigenetic trait of genes, which refers to a stably heritable phenotype resulting from changes in the chromosomes without alteration of the DNA sequence, but has profound effects on the cellular repertoire. Among the epigenetic patterns, DNA methylation is of great interest. DNA methylation occurs at both global and specific gene promoter levels and relates to atherosclerosis. Aberrant DNA methylation affects the transcription and expression of critical regulatory genes and induces a proatherogenic cellular phenotype, which plays key roles in endothelia cell dysfunction, abnormal vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation, extracellular matrix formation, and inflammation in CVDs. This review focuses on the contribution of DNA methylation in the pathogenesis of CVDs.
A globally optimal local inventory control policy for multistage supply chains

In the considered multistage supply chain, the product structure determines the organization of the network of enterprises that cooperate to manufacture end-products from raw materials. This paper proposes to describe such a multistage supply chain by a sequence of linear dynamical models with distributed delays. The assumed autonomy and information privacy of production units imposes structural constraints on production and inventory policies. Each local inventory policy is supposed to be a base-stock policy applied to the position inventory. At each stage, demand is supposed random but stationary with a known mean value. This paper shows that the collection of local inventory policies is equivalent to the global policy which minimizes the long term average cost of the whole supply chain.
Corman: The Advanced Cooperative Opportunistic Routing Scheme in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

The mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a wire fewer network that uses multi-hop peer to peer routing. A user can be able to move at anytime in an ad hoc scenario. As a result, such a needs to have routing protocols that can be adopted dynamically changing topology. To achieve this, a number of routing protocols have been proposed and implemented such as Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector routing (AODV), Path finding algorithm (PFA) and link vector algorithm(LV). The comparison had been done on the basis of Routing messages overhead; send list adaption and robustness against link quality variation, It tackles the issue of opportunistic data transfer in ad-hoc networks. The best solution is called cooperative opportunistic routing in mobile ad-hoc networks (CORMAN). That is pure network layer schemes that can be built a top off-the-shelf wire fewer networking equipment. The CORMAN and AODV will observe the significant performance of the network.
Self‐Organized Monolayers: A Route to Conformational Switching and Read‐Out of Functional Supramolecular Assemblies by Scanning Probe Methods

Self‐organized molecular layers provide a promising route to constructing new (switchable) nanodevices and optimizing nanosensors. The design of such molecules involves control of structure and stabilization on the surface, as well as control of functionality. The search for a potentially universal “adapter”, which can control the self‐organization and stabilization on a particular type of surface, is a unique challenge. High‐quality nanoscale imaging using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) provides the means to further such studies. This article reviews our recent STM work on single molecules, self‐assembled monolayers, and self‐organized monolayers, highlighting our application of a general “self‐organizer” for graphite surfaces, i.e., a Fréchet‐type dendron. How powerfully this self‐organizing motif can affect various central components (catalytic, switchable, redox‐active) on a graphite surface is addressed by analyzing self‐organized monolayers of nine different molecules, each containing at least one first‐ or second‐generation Fréchet‐type dendron. In molecular layers containing a “switchable” core, we can detect a large conformational change upon protonation with HCl gas. Last, but not least, the dynamic surface organization properties of the Fréchet‐type dendrons are described.
Oxygen in wound healing: More than a nutrient

This article provides an overview of the role of oxygen in wound healing. The understanding of this role has undergone a major evolution from its long-recognized importance as an essential factor for oxidative metabolism, to its recognition as an important cell signal interacting with growth factors and other signals to regulate signal transduction pathways. Our laboratory has been engaged in thestudy of animal models of skin ischemia to explore in vivo the impact of hypoxia as well as the use of oxygen as a therapeutic agent either alone or in combination with other agents such as growth factors. We have demonstrated a synergistic effect of systemic hyperbaric oxygen and growth factors that has been substantiated by Hunt’s group. Within the past 10 years research in the field of wound healing has given new insight into the mechanism of action of hypoxia and hyperoxia as modifiers of the normal time-course of wound healing. The article concludes with a discussion of why hypoxia and hyperoxia intercurrently play an important role in wound healing. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 is crucial in that interplay.
AdapNoC: A fast and flexible FPGA-based NoC simulator

Network on Chip (NoC) is the most common interconnection platform for multiprocessor systems-on-chips (MPSoCs). In order to explore the design space of this platform, we need a high-speed, cycle-accurate, and flexible simulation tool. In this paper, we present AdapNoC, a configurable cycle-accurate FPGA-based NoC simulator, which can be configured via software. A wide range of parameters are configurable in FPGA side of the proposed simulator, and the software side is implemented on an embedded soft-core processor. We transfer some parts of simulator, such as Traffic Generators (TGs) and Traffic Receptors (TRs), to software side without any degradation in simulation speed. Moreover, we implement a dual-clock architecture as an innovation in virtualization methodology, which is also capable to share idle time-slots, which helps not only simulate bigger NoCs, but also reduce simulation time drastically. Also, by employing a traffic aggregator architecture, AdapNoC provides table-based adaptive routing algorithm as a configurable parameter in router microarchitecture. We evaluate simulation time of AdapNoC by using Xilinx Virtex-6 XC6VLX240T, and demonstrate 53x-180x speed-up against BOOKSIM. Also, due to our proposed virtualization, and TGs and TRs migration to software side, we can implement a 64-node non-virtualized or a 1024-node virtualized mesh network in only %72 of Xilinx Virtex-6 XC6VLX240T resources.
Infection of the Reproductive Tract and Eggs with Salmonella enterica Serovar Pullorum in the Chicken Is Associated with Suppression of Cellular Immunity at Sexual Maturity

ABSTRACT Salmonella enterica serovar Pullorum causes persistent infections in laying hens. Splenic macrophages are the main site of persistence. At sexual maturity, numbers of bacteria increase and spread to the reproductive tract, which may result in vertical transmission to eggs or chicks. In this study we demonstrate that both male and female chickens may develop a carrier state following infection but that the increases in bacterial numbers and spread to the reproductive tract are phenomena restricted to hens, indicating that such changes are likely to be related to the onset of egg laying. The immunological responses during the carrier state and through the onset of laying in hens were determined. These indicate that chickens produce both humoral and T-cell responses to infection, but at the onset of laying both the T-cell response to Salmonella and nonspecific responses to mitogenic stimulation fall sharply in both infected and noninfected birds. The fall in T-cell responsiveness coincided with the increase in numbers of Salmonella serovar Pullorum and its spread to the reproductive tract. Three weeks after the onset of egg laying, T-cell responsiveness began to increase and bacterial numbers declined. Specific antibody levels changed little at the onset of laying but increased following the rise in bacterial numbers in a manner reminiscent of a secondary antibody response to rechallenge. These findings indicate that a nonspecific suppression of cellular responses occurs at the onset of laying and plays a major role the ability of Salmonella serovar Pullorum to infect the reproductive tract, leading to transmission to eggs. The loss of T-cell activity at the point of laying also has implications for Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis infection and transmission to eggs, along with its control by vaccination offering a “window of opportunity” in which infection may occur.
Building User Profiles from Shared Photos

In this paper, we analyze the association between a social media user's photo content and their interests. Visual content of photos is analyzed using state-of-the-art deep learning based automatic concept recognition. We compute an aggregate visual concept signature for each user. User tags that have been manually applied to their photos are also used to construct a tf-idf based signature per user. We also obtain social groups that users join to represent their social interests. In an effort to compare the visual-based versus tag-based user profiles with social interests, we compare corresponding similarity matrices with a reference similarity matrix based on users' group memberships. A random baseline is also included that groups users by random sampling while preserving the actual group sizes. A difference metric is proposed and it is shown that the combination of visual and text features better approximates the group-based similarity matrix than either modality individually. We also validate the visual analysis against the reference inter-user similarity using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. Finally we cluster users by their visual signatures and rank clusters using a cluster uniqueness criteria.
SUMMARIZATION BY EFFICIENT CLUSTERING OF COMPRESSED CHROMATICITY SIGNATURES

Motivated by problems in video summarization caused by change in lighting, we develop a new low-dimensional feature video frame feature that is more insensitive to such changesthan previous methods. Because we effectively reduce any video to the same lighting conditions, we can produce a universal basison which to project video frame features. We set out a new multi-stage hierarchical clustering method that merges clusters based on variance ratio, the ratio of intraand total variance, and merges only adjacent clusters. A second stage merges clusters incorrectly split in the first round by the greedy hierarchical algorithm, and finally merges non-adacent clusters to fuse near-repeat shots. The new summarization method produces a very succinct set of keyframes for videos, and results are very encouraging.
Secular Trends in Ischemic Heart Disease and Stroke Mortality from 1970 to 1976 in Spanish-surnamed and Other White Individuals in Bexar County, Texas

SUMMARY Secular trends in age-adjusted cardiovascular mortality from 1970-1976 were examined for Spanishsurnamed and other white men and women in San Antonio and surrounding Bexar County, Texas. Declines in ischemic heartdisease (IHD1) mortality were observed in Spanish-surnamed men and women and in other white men; these trends were significant in Spanish-surnamed women and other white men. " Acute myocardial infarction mortality declined in all four sex/ethnic groups, and these declines were significant in Spanish-surnamed women and in other white women and men. Mortality from chronic IHD declined significantly in Spanish-surnamed women, but not in the other three groups. No secular trends were seen in cerebrovascular mortality. [)eclines in diabetes mortality in the Spanish-surnamed population were also observed, and were accompanied by an upward trend in the male-to-female ratio in IHD mortality in this group. Given the disproportionate effect of diabetes on fatal coronary heart disease in women compared to men, this latter finding suggests that the force of diabetes on IHD mortality mav also have waned in this ethnic group during these years.Changes in personal health habits have been considered as a possible explanation for the decline in IHD mortality nationally. Research in the social sciences, however, suggests that lower socioeconomic status individuals tend to adopt health innovations more slowly than upper socioeconomic status individuals. Thus, the fact that in our data the favorable trends in IHD mortality were shared equally by Spanish-surnamed and other white indi'i Nuals suggests that factors other than changes in health habits may have played at least a contributory role. Additional possible explanations which we have considered include fluctuations in influenza and pneumonia mortality, improved control of hypertension, and improvements in emergency medical services and in-hospital coronary care.
Childhood Obesity and Metabolic Imprinting

OBJECTIVE—The purpose of this study was to determine how the range of measured maternal glycemia in pregnancy relates to risk of obesity in childhood. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Universal gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) screening (a 50-g glucose challenge test [GCT]) was performed in two regions (Northwest and Hawaii) of a large diverse HMO during 1995–2000, and GDM was diagnosed/treated using a 3-h 100-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and National Diabetes Data Group (NDDG) criteria. Measured weight in offspring (n = 9,439) was ascertained 5–7 years later to calculate sex-specific weight-for-age percentiles using U.S. norms (1963–1994 standard) and then classified by maternal positive GCT (1 h ≥ 7.8 mmol/l) and OGTT results (1 or ≥2 of the 4 time points abnormal: fasting, 1 h, 2 h, or 3 h by Carpenter and Coustan and NDDG criteria). RESULTS—There was a positive trend for increasing childhood obesity at age 5–7 years (P < 0.0001; 85th and 95th percentiles) across the range of increasing maternal glucose screen values, which remained after adjustment for potential confounders including maternal weight gain, maternal age, parity, ethnicity, and birth weight. The risk of childhood obesity in offspring of mothers with GDM by NDDG criteria (treated) was attenuated compared with the risks for the groups with lesser degrees of hyperglycemia (untreated). The relationships were similar among Caucasians and non-Caucasians. Stratification by birth weight also revealed these effects in children of normal birth weight (≤4,000 g). CONCLUSIONS—Our results in a multiethnic U.S. population suggest that increasing hyperglycemia in pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity. More research is needed to determine whether treatment of GDM may be a modifiable risk factor for childhood obesity.
Determining the Similarity of Web Pages based on Learning Automata and Probabilistic Grammar

As the number of web pages increases, search for useful information by users on web sites will become more signiﬁcant. By determining the similarity of web pages, search quality can be improved; hence, users can easily ﬁnd their relevant information. In this paper, distributed learning automata and probabilistic grammar were used to propose a new hybrid algorithm in order to specify the similarity of web pages by means of web usage data. In the proposed algorithm, a Learning Automata (LA) for each web page is assigned which its function is to evaluate association rules extracted by hypertext system. This learning process continues until the similarity of web pages are determined. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm over other existing techniques.