Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Commercialization of Wheat Straw as Reinforcing Filler for Commodity Thermoplastics

Thermoplastic biocomposites from various agro-fibers have been prepared and marketed for their advantages over conventional petroleum-based composite products. In this study, we explored the advantages and commercial viability of using wheat straw as filler for thermoplastic composites. The operational cost involved in filler preparation by both refining and grinding processes was discussed. The wheat straw was refined to get both fiber and wheat stalk flour for composite preparation. Composites of thermoplastic filled with wheat straw were prepared and their mechanical properties were evaluated and compared with those of wood flour and grinded wheat flour composites. The thermal flow, and water absorption properties of the composites were also evaluated. Colored pigments were used in the composites, and their effects on the properties were studied. Wheat straw filler–reinforced polymer composites exhibited comparable mechanical properties with that of wood flour composites. Economic analysis was done to ensure that the use of wheat flour produced by grinding processes will reduce the production cost of wheat-thermoplastic pellets significantly.
Inverter circuit with the regenerative passive snubber

This paper presents an inverter circuit using a snubber circuit to achieve soft switching. This snubber circuit has a transformer-based energy regenerative circuit. This circuit has no additional switching device, and the cost is low. In this paper, this circuit was examined and evaluated by single shot test and PWM drive test. By single shot test, turn-on and turn-off waveforms were measured and we verified that the loss of the switching devices was decreased. Moreover by PWM drive test, the temperature under switching devices with snubber was lower than that of snubberless main circuit. Calculating the loss from the temperature, we verified that the total loss of the switching devices decreased to 72%. This decrease of the switching loss will make it possible to raise switching frequency. Therefore, we can reduce the weight of the filter reactor
Evaluating mobile phones as risk information providers

Information about health, disease or environmental conditions is increasingly becoming available. We investigate the suitability of using mobile phones as an interface to provide information about risk-related events or conditions to the user. We approach the problem by conducting an online survey in order to match the requirements on a risk information service with the capabilities of the mobile phone and to evaluate different notification mechanisms, the usage frequency, and the influence of costs. Based on the results of the survey we confirm the suitability of the mobile phone to provide risk-related information as well as the user's willingness to pay for the service.
Design of a spider-like robot for motion with quasi-static force constraints

This paper presents a novel design of a 4-legged "spider" robot capable of moving in a wide range of two-dimensional tunnels. The spider moves in a quasi-static manner, by stably bracing itself against the tunnel walls and moving a free limb to a new position. The design has been strongly influenced by the recent immobilization theory of Rimon and Burdick (1995, 1998). The theory dictates the minimum number of limbs such a spider can have, as well as the shape of the footpads. The class of tunnel geometries dictates other key parameters of the spider, such as limb dimensions and number of degrees of freedom of each limb. We review the relevant components of the immobilization theory, then describe the details of the spider design. The spider will initially move under a worst-case assumption of slippery tunnel walls, and we also describe a locomotion strategy under this assumption. The spider has been built and is currently undergoing locomotion experiments.
Emergency department procedural sedation and analgesia: A Canadian Community Effectiveness and Safety Study (ACCESS).

OBJECTIVES To determine the effectiveness and safety of procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA) in a Canadian community emergency department (ED) staffed primarily by family physicians and to assess the role of capnometry monitoring in PSA. METHODS One hundred and sixty (160) consecutive procedural sedation cases were reviewed from the ED of a rural hospital in Huntsville, Ont. The ED is mainly staffed by family physicians who have received in-house training in PSA. Safety and effectiveness measures were extrapolated from a standardized PSA form by a blinded research assistant. RESULTS The mean age of the patient population was 33.6 years (standard deviation = 23.6). Fifty-four percent of the patients were male, and 33% of the cases were pediatric. PSA medications included propofol (84%), fentanyl (51%) and midazolam (15%), and the procedural success rate was 95.6%. The adverse event (AE) rate was 18% and included apnea (10%), inadequate sedation (3%), bradycardia (2%), desaturation (1%), hypotension (1%) and bag-valve-mask use (1%). In those aged > or = 65 years there was a greater incidence of apnea. There were no episodes of emesis and there were no intubations. A modified jaw thrust manoeuvre was used in 23% of the cases. I the 64% of cases where capnometry was used, there was no association between its use and any AE measures. CONCLUSION Procedural sedation was safe and effective in our environment. Capnometry recording did not appear to alter outcomes, although the data are incomplete.
Metabolic Inflammation in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Crosstalk Between Adipose Tissue and Bowel

Abstract:Epidemiological studies show that both the incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and the proportion of people with obesity and/or obesity-associated metabolic syndrome increased markedly in developed countries during the past half century. Obesity is also associated with the development of more active IBD and requirement for hospitalization and with a decrease in the time span between diagnosis and surgery. Patients with IBD, especially Crohn's disease, present fat-wrapping or “creeping fat,” which corresponds to ectopic adipose tissue extending from the mesenteric attachment and covering the majority of the small and large intestinal surface. Mesenteric adipose tissue in patients with IBD presents several morphological and functional alterations, e.g., it is more infiltrated with immune cells such as macrophages and T cells. All these lines of evidence clearly show an association between obesity, adipose tissue, and functional bowel disorders. In this review, we will show that the mesenteric adipose tissue and creeping fat are not innocent by standers but actively contribute to the intestinal and systemic inflammatory responses in patients with IBD. More specifically, we will review evidence showing that adipose tissue in IBD is associated with major alterations in the secretion of cytokines and adipokines involved in inflammatory process, in adipose tissue mesenchymal stem cells and adipogenesis, and in the interaction between adipose tissue and other intestinal components (immune, lymphatic, neuroendocrine, and intestinal epithelial systems). Collectively, these studies underline the importance of adipose tissue for the identification of novel therapeutic approaches for IBD.
Empirical Equation Based Chirality (n, m) Assignment of Semiconducting Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes from Resonant Raman Scattering Data

This work presents a technique for the chirality (n, m) assignment of semiconducting single wall carbon nanotubes by solving a set of empirical equations of the tight binding model parameters. The empirical equations of the nearest neighbor hopping parameters, relating the term (2n− m) with the first and second optical transition energies of the semiconducting single wall carbon nanotubes, are also proposed. They provide almost the same level of accuracy for lower and higher diameter nanotubes. An algorithm is presented to determine the chiral index (n, m) of any unknown semiconducting tube by solving these empirical equations using values of radial breathing mode frequency and the first or second optical transition energy from resonant Raman spectroscopy. In this paper, the chirality of 55 semiconducting nanotubes is assigned using the first and second optical transition energies. Unlike the existing methods of chirality assignment, this technique does not require graphical comparison or pattern recognition between existing experimental and theoretical Kataura plot.
Analysis of selected utility properties of biomaterials used in coronary stents

Purpose: The study analysed influence of the selected functional properties of metallic biomaterials on selected functional properties of coronary stents used in invasive cardiology. Design/methodology/approach: Pitting corrosion resistance tests were performed by means of potentiodynamic method. Corrosion resistance tests were performed on the ground of registered anodic polarisation curves and Stern method. The research also comprised galvanic corrosion resistance tests with application of Evans method. Measurements were made with VoltaLab® PGP 201 system. Tests were performed in artificial blood plasma at the temperature T = 37.0±1°C and pH = 7.0±0.2. Measurements of fluoroscopic visibility with application of cardiovascular imaging system Integris 5000 by Philips were also performed. Findings: Application of Ta layer in composite stents made of Cr-Ni-Mo steel is an effective method used for improvement of their functional properties, and in particular of their fluoroscopic visibility, at the same time decreasing their corrosion resistance. It is of crucial meaning for increasing effectiveness and safety of lowinvasive percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. Practical implications: Improvement of fluoroscopic visibility of coronary stents is possible through application of materials with increased X-ray absorptivity for their production. Within this scope you can consider certain form of implant created as a whole from one biomaterial or mixture of two biomaterials (layer implants), on the assumption that one of them features greater X-ray absorptivity. Originality/value: Application of middle layer made of tantalum in composite stent does not influence initiation of galvanic corrosion process but it produces better fluoroscopic visibility that brings forth improved safety of coronary angioplasty
Rapid screening method to study the reactivity of UV filter substances towards skin proteins by high‐performance thin‐layer chromatography

Most UV filters used in sunscreens and other cosmetic products contain carbonyl groups, which generally are able to react with peptides or free amino acids of the human skin. To estimate their reactivity, we studied different prominent UV filter substances, octocrylene, ethylhexyl salicylate, 4‐t‐butyl‐4′‐methoxydibenzoylmethane, ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, benzophenone‐3, hydroxymethylbenzoyl sulphonic acid, octyldimethyl p‐aminobenzoic acid, 3‐benzylidene camphor, 4‐methylbenzylidene camphor, diethylhexyl butamido triazone and ethylhexyl triazone.
Multi-instance multi-label learning in the presence of novel class instances

Multi-instance multi-label learning (MIML) is a framework for learning in the presence of label ambiguity. In MIML, experts provide labels for groups of instances (bags), instead of directly providing a label for every instance. When labeling efforts are focused on a set of target classes, instances outside this set will not be appropriately modeled. For example, ornithologists label bird audio recordings with a list of species present. Other additional sound instances, e.g., a rain drop or a moving vehicle sound, are not labeled. The challenge is due to the fact that for a given bag, the presence or absence of novel instances is latent. In this paper, this problem is addressed using a discriminative probabilistic model that accounts for novel instances. We propose an exact and efficient implementation of the maximum likelihood approach to determine the model parameters and consequently learn an instance-level classifier for all classes including the novel class. Experiments on both synthetic and real datasets illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
BabelNetXplorer: a platform for multilingual lexical knowledge base access and exploration

Knowledge on word meanings and their relations across languages is vital for enabling semantic information technologies: in fact, the ever increasingly multilingual nature of the Web now calls for the development of methods that are both robust and widely applicable for processing textual information in a multitude of languages. In our research, we approach this ambitious task by means of BabelNet, a wide-coverage multilingual lexical knowledge base. In this paper we present an Application Programming Interface and a Graphical User Interface which, respectively, allow programmatic access and visual exploration of BabelNet. Our contribution is to provide the research community with easy-to-use tools for performing multilingual lexical semantic analysis, thereby fostering further research in this direction.
Automated Sequential Search for Weak Radiation Sources

We demonstrate the principle of a bidirectional interaction between the perception model that describes the environment, and the sensor data collection that shapes the model, through the first automated scheme for sequential nuclear search. The objective is to detect and localize a weak radioactive point source, with consideration to the time spent for the search. Numerical simulations verify that desired false positive and false negative rates can be achieved using the control algorithm developed for deployment on prototype system. The simulation results are also consistent with previous theoretical, discrete simulation of the sequential search strategy that our continuous search control algorithm is based on
The Membrane Mucin Msb2 Regulates Invasive Growth and Plant Infection in Fusarium oxysporum[W]

This study examines the activation of a conserved mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade that is essential for fungal pathogenicity in plants. A highly glycosylated mucin-like transmembrane protein is shown to contribute to phosphorylation of the MAPK that promotes invasive growth and virulence in the soilborne vascular wilt fungus Fusarium oxysporum. Fungal pathogenicity in plants requires a conserved mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade homologous to the yeast filamentous growth pathway. How this signaling cascade is activated during infection remains poorly understood. In the soil-borne vascular wilt fungus Fusarium oxysporum, the orthologous MAPK Fmk1 (Fusarium MAPK1) is essential for root penetration and pathogenicity in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants. Here, we show that Msb2, a highly glycosylated transmembrane protein, is required for surface-induced phosphorylation of Fmk1 and contributes to a subset of Fmk1-regulated functions related to invasive growth and virulence. Mutants lacking Msb2 share characteristic phenotypes with the Δfmk1 mutant, including defects in cellophane invasion, penetration of the root surface, and induction of vascular wilt symptoms in tomato plants. In contrast with Δfmk1, Δmsb2 mutants were hypersensitive to cell wall targeting compounds, a phenotype that was exacerbated in a Δmsb2 Δfmk1 double mutant. These results suggest that the membrane mucin Msb2 promotes invasive growth and plant infection upstream of Fmk1 while contributing to cell integrity through a distinct pathway.
Evaluation of language measure parameters for discrete event manufacturing systems with multiproduct machines

The concept of language measure provides a mathematical framework for quantitative analysis and synthesis of discrete event supervisory control systems. The language measure is assigned two parameters, namely the state transition cost matrix and the state cost vector. In a recent paper (Khatab and Nourelfath 2006), an analytical approach has been formulated to evaluate the language measure parameters for discrete event manufacturing systems composed of several monoproduct machines, i.e., each machine is able to perform only one kind of product. This paper generalizes these results to the multiproduct case, i.e., to the case where each machine in the manufacturing system is able to perform different kinds of products. The proposed approach is based on the theory of Markov stochastic processes and Kronecker algebra. The main advantage of the proposed approach is that the mathematical expressions of the system language measure parameters are derived from data of individual elementary machines without generating the whole, possibly huge, system state space.
DSL development based on target meta-models. Using AST transformations for automating semantic analysis in a textual DSL framework

This paper describes an approach to creating textual syntax for Do- main-Specific Languages (DSL). We consider target meta-model to be the main artifact and hence to be developed first. The key idea is to represent analysis of textual syntax as a sequence of transformations. This is made by explicit opera- tions on abstract syntax trees (ATS), for which a simple language is proposed. Text-to-model transformation is divided into two parts: text-to-AST (developed by openArchitectureWare [1]) and AST-to-model (proposed by this paper). Our approach simplifies semantic analysis and helps to generate as much as possi- ble.
Pancreatitis in Cystic Fibrosis and CFTR-Related Disorder

Named after the pathologic changes seen in the pancreas, cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common lethal genetic disease in Caucasians, occuring in around 1 in 3000 live births. CF is uncommon among Asians (1 in 31,000 live births) and African Americans (1 in 15,000 live births) (Maitra & Kumar, 2005). It is caused by disease-causing mutations on both cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) alleles. Acute, recurrent-acute and chronic pancreatitis in association with CFTR mutations can develop in the setting of either CF disease or CFTR-related pancreatitis, which belong within the spectrum of disorders associated with CFTR dysfunction.
Antibiotic choice in acute and complicated sinusitis

Abstract The microbiology of 87 patients admitted to hospital, over a five-year period, with acute sinusitis was retrospectively analysed. Sixty-three patients had one or more of an orbital, intracranial, soft tissue or bony complication. Eighty-four patients had maxillary sinus washouts, while 48 required a surgical procedure to their sinuses, and 33, drainage of an empyema. Streptococcus milleri and Haemophilus influenzae were the commonest organisms isolated from sinus aspirates (44 per cent), with a noticeable absence of Streptococcus pneumoniae (10 per cent). Organisms cultured from intracranial, soft tissue or orbitral empyemas were predominantly Streptococcus milleri (50 per cent) and Staphylococcus aureus (25 per cent) with an absence of Haemophilus influenzae (four per cent) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (four per cent). Ampicillin is an appropriate first line antimicrobial agent in patients with acute complicated sinusitis with the addition of cloxacillin in cases with an empyema. Chloramphenicol or ceftriaxone is used in cases with an intracranial complication.
Select Small Core Structure Carbamates Exhibit High Contact Toxicity to “Carbamate-Resistant” Strain Malaria Mosquitoes, Anopheles gambiae (Akron)

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is a proven target for control of the malaria mosquito (Anopheles gambiae). Unfortunately, a single amino acid mutation (G119S) in An. gambiae AChE-1 (AgAChE) confers resistance to the AChE inhibitors currently approved by the World Health Organization for indoor residual spraying. In this report, we describe several carbamate inhibitors that potently inhibit G119S AgAChE and that are contact-toxic to carbamate-resistant An. gambiae. PCR-RFLP analysis was used to confirm that carbamate-susceptible G3 and carbamate-resistant Akron strains of An. gambiae carry wild-type (WT) and G119S AChE, respectively. G119S AgAChE was expressed and purified for the first time, and was shown to have only 3% of the turnover number (k cat) of the WT enzyme. Twelve carbamates were then assayed for inhibition of these enzymes. High resistance ratios (>2,500-fold) were observed for carbamates bearing a benzene ring core, consistent with the carbamate-resistant phenotype of the G119S enzyme. Interestingly, resistance ratios for two oxime methylcarbamates, and for five pyrazol-4-yl methylcarbamates were found to be much lower (4- to 65-fold). The toxicities of these carbamates to live G3 and Akron strain An. gambiae were determined. As expected from the enzyme resistance ratios, carbamates bearing a benzene ring core showed low toxicity to Akron strain An. gambiae (LC50>5,000 μg/mL). However, one oxime methylcarbamate (aldicarb) and five pyrazol-4-yl methylcarbamates (4a–e) showed good to excellent toxicity to the Akron strain (LC50 = 32–650 μg/mL). These results suggest that appropriately functionalized “small-core” carbamates could function as a resistance-breaking anticholinesterase insecticides against the malaria mosquito.
Extended constrained deformations: a new sculpturing tool

Modelling tools tend to virtual sculpturing, in which a basic object is deformed by user supplied actions. The model we present aims to be generic: whatever the geometric description of the object, we can deform it to satisfy location constraints. Our model deforms the whole space, the image of a point is a blend of deformation functions with a projection matrix which allows the satisfaction of the constraints. The user can define the extent of the deformation (i.e. the part of the object to be deformed), the shape of the deformation function to create profiles and the displacement of the constraint points to be satisfied.
HAART and ATT in the HIV-positive patient with tuberculosis

1. Jain NK, Thakkar MS, Jain N, Rohan KA, Sharma M. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Does gender really matter? Lung India 2011;28:258-62. emphysema as compared to females in this study. Emphysema is a disease characterized by breathlessness and less productive cough. In past, emphysema patients were referred to as “pink puffers. ” Weight loss is the main feature of this group but weight loss was more common in females of the present study. 2. Anemia—more number of females had dirty chest which is, as you have describe aptly, a feature of chronic bronchitis. Chronic bronchitis is usually associated with polycythemia and CO2 retention. In this study, more women were anemic which does not go well with dirty lungs in chest X-ray pictures. Can you explain? 3. Type of lung cancers would have been additional information, as the underlying causes for COPD in males and females were different. 4. What is the rationale of evaluating effects of gender on COPD? Is it going to drastically change the concept of COPD affecting treatment outcomesor prevent any major catastrophe related to disease?
Barriers to the Adoption of B2B e-Marketplaces by Large Enterprises: Lessons Learned From the Hellenic Aerospace Industry

This article investigates the main barriers to the adoption of B2B e-marketplaces by large enterprises and at the same time the expected benefits that push in the opposite direction towards the adoption, through a case study conducted at the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI), one of the largest industrial enterprises of Greece. The evidence collected from this case has been analyzed using various frameworks from the literature and also the innovation diffusion theory of Rogers, and shed light on the specificity of the large enterprises concerning e-marketplaces adoption.