Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blast Testing Issues and TBI: Experimental Models That Lead to Wrong Conclusions

Over the past several years, we have noticed an increase in the number of blast injury studies published in peer-reviewed biomedical journals that have utilized improperly conceived experiments. Data from these studies will lead to false conclusions and more confusion than advancement in the understanding of blast injury, particularly blast neurotrauma. Computational methods to properly characterize the blast environment have been available for decades. These methods, combined with a basic understanding of blast wave phenomena, enable researchers to extract useful information from well-documented experiments. This basic understanding must include the differences and interrelationships of static pressure, dynamic pressure, reflected pressure, and total or stagnation pressure in transient shockwave flows, how they relate to loading of objects, and how they are properly measured. However, it is critical that the research community effectively overcomes the confusion that has been compounded by a misunderstanding of the differences between the loading produced by a free field explosive blast and loading produced by a conventional shock tube. The principles of blast scaling have been well established for decades and when properly applied will do much to repair these problems. This paper provides guidance regarding proper experimental methods and offers insights into the implications of improperly designed and executed tests. Through application of computational methods, useful data can be extracted from well-documented historical tests, and future work can be conducted in a way to maximize the effectiveness and use of valuable biological test data.
Cervical muscle area measurements in acute whiplash patients and controls

To quantitatively compare the muscle cross‐sectional areas (CSAs) of the cervical muscles in symptomatic acute whiplash patients versus healthy controls. We hypothesized, that symptomatic whiplash patients have smaller cervical muscle CSAs than matched controls and that smaller cervical muscle CSAs in women might explain that women more frequently are symptomatic after whiplash injury than men.
Semantically steered visual analysis of highly detailed morphometric shape spaces

A common technique in 3D shape analysis is to describe shape variability using a statistical deformation model (SDM). In contrast to the use of sparse landmark data for volume data this SDM is based on dense registrations of the input shapes. For a valuable exploration of the shape space in the setting of biological morphometrics we identified two prominent objectives for visual investigation. The first objective is to detect possible shape variations between anatomically different groups of individuals. The second is to integrate and exploit expert knowledge about relevant regions on the shapes. To meet the first objective, we advocate the use of dimensionality reduction methods combined with a parameterization defined on user specified classifications. This idea was already successfully applied in data-driven reflectance models and also turns out to be valuable in the context of biological morphometry, as it allows for intuitive exploration of shape variations. The second objective can be achieved by an appropriate weighted linear analysis which delivers a better approximation of shape variations in local neighbourhoods of a user defined region of interest. The methods were applied to real-world biological datasets of rodent mandibles and validated in cooperation with the MPI for Evolutionary Biology. For this purpose, we provide an interactive dynamic visualization of the shape space based on a custom GPU raycaster. A special feature of our implementation is that it builds the SDM directly on dense registrations of the volumes and does thereby not rely on a specific non-rigid registration method.
Das Principal-Agent-Verhältnis zwischen Bevölkerung und Politik als zentrales Problem der Alterssicherung in Deutschland

Die Ausfuhrungen behandeln die institutionelle Ausgestaltung der Alterssicherung in Deutschland. Im Mittelpunkt steht das Verhaltnis zwischen Bevolkerung und Politik. Die Beziehung wird im Rahmen der Principal-Agent-Theorie - mit der Bevolkerung als Principal und der Politik als Agent - ausfuhrlich beleuchtet. In einem ersten Schritt wird hierbei ein kurzer Uberblick uber die Principal-Agent-Theorie gegeben und das bestehende Verhaltnis zwischen Bevolkerung und Politik in diesen theoretischen Ansatz eingeordnet. Anschliesend wird die Beziehung modelltheoretisch bei Sicherheit / Unsicherheit bzw. symmetrischer Informationsverteilung / asymmetrischer Informationsverteilung analysiert. In diesem Zusammenhang zeigt sich, dass die bestehende 'Vertragsbeziehung' zwischen Bevolkerung und Politik im Bereich der Alterssicherung im Vergleich mit alternativen Ausgestaltungsmoglichkeiten zu Wohlfahrtsverlusten fuhrt. Abgeschlossen werden die Ausfuhrungen mit wirtschaftspolitischen Implikationen und Ansatzen fur konkrete wirtschaftspolitische Masnahmen.
Spatial pattern of myosin phosphorylation in contracting smooth muscle cells: evidence for contractile zones

We have purified a polyclonal antibody by affinity chromatography which binds specifically to the phosphorylated form of the regulatory light chain (Mr = 20,000) of smooth muscle myosin. This antibody does not stain relaxed, permeabilized smooth muscle cells isolated from guinea pig taenia coli. However, when these cells were stimulated to contract with CaCl2 (100 microM) and ATP (1 mM), the immunofluorescence staining was localized in a series of transverse bands. This distribution of activated myosin appears to reflect an underlying structural organization of the smooth muscle cell cytoskeleton into mechanically coupled contractile zones.
Incorporating swarm behavior into the adaptation mechanism of an order-driven artificial financial market

Agent-based artificial financial markets are an area of increasing interest in computational finance. Recent work by LeBaron and Yamamoto proposes an order-driven market model based on evolutionary algorithm based artificial agents. In this paper, we present a mechanism for incorporating elements of swarm intelligence into this model, and find that our model produces market price behavior that, in some ways, is closer to that of real financial markets.
Mining social images with distance metric learning for automated image tagging

With the popularity of various social media applications, massive social images associated with high quality tags have been made available in many social media web sites nowadays. Mining social images on the web has become an emerging important research topic in web search and data mining. In this paper, we propose a machine learning framework for mining social images and investigate its application to automated image tagging. To effectively discover knowledge from social images that are often associated with multimodal contents (including visual images and textual tags), we propose a novel Unified Distance Metric Learning (UDML) scheme, which not only exploits both visual and textual contents of social images, but also effectively unifies both inductive and transductive metric learning techniques in a systematic learning framework. We further develop an efficient stochastic gradient descent algorithm for solving the UDML optimization task and prove the convergence of the algorithm. By applying the proposed technique to the automated image tagging task in our experiments, we demonstrate that our technique is empirically effective and promising for mining social images towards some real applications.
Effects of Combination of Thiazolidinediones with Melatonin in Dexamethasone-induced Insulin Resistance in Mice

In type 2 Diabetes, oxidative stress plays an important role in development and aggregation of insulin resistance. In the present study, long term administration of the dexamethasone led to the development of insulin resistance in mice. The effect of thiazolidinediones pioglitazone and rosiglitazone, with melatonin on dexamethasone-induced insulin resistance was evaluated in mice. Insulin resistant mice were treated with combination of pioglitazone (10 mg/kg/day, p.o.) or rosiglitazone (5 mg/kg/day, p.o.) with melatonin 10 mg/kg/day p.o. from day 7 to day 22. In the biochemical parameters, the serum glucose, triglyceride levels were significantly lowered (P<0.05) in the combination groups as compared to dexamethasone treated group as well as with individual groups of pioglitazone, rosiglitazone, and melatonin. There was also, significant increased (P<0.05) in the body weight gain in combination treated groups as compared to dexamethasone as well as individual groups. The combination groups proved to be effective in normalizing the levels of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione reductase and lipid peroxidation in liver homogenates may be due to antioxidant effects of melatonin and decreased hyperglycemia induced insulin resistance by thiazolidinediones. The glucose uptake in the isolated hemidiaphragm of mice was significantly increased in combination treated groups (PM and RM) than dexamethasone alone treated mice as well as individual (pioglitazone, rosiglitazone, melatonin) treated groups probably via increased in expression of GLUT-4 by melatonin and thiazolidinediones as well as increased in insulin sensitivity by thiazolidinediones. Hence, it can be concluded that combination of pioglitazone and rosiglitazone, thiazolidinediones, with melatonin may reduces the insulin resistance via decreased in oxidative stress and control on hyperglycemia.
“A survey on TCP CUBIC variant regarding performance”

CUBIC is one of the most popular version of TCP being used by many flavours of Linux now a days. CUBIC [6] is an enhanced version of BIC TCP (Binary Increase Congestion Transmission Control Protocol) ? To enhance the scalability of TCP in long distance network scenarios, CUBIC modified the linear window growth function of standard TCP to cubic [6] function. During communication, CUBIC decreases the size of congestion windows (cwnd) at Saturation-States and increases its size instantly at Stable-States. CUBIC protocol keeps the window-increase- rate independent of RTT, which helps the protocol TCP friendly in short and long RTTs. When the CUBIC window-growth-function is slower than standard TCP, CUBIC [6] behaves like standard TCP in order to provide fairness to standard TCP. In this Paper, CUBIC performance evaluation is done by Network Simulator-2 experiments. As this is a survey paper, performance analysis of other TCP versions is also discussed.
Próffræðilegir eiginleikar íslenskrar útgáfu Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC)

The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Icelandic version of the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC). Participants were 79 parents of children born 2009 and attending kindergarten. Exploratory factor analysis showed that a two-factor solution best explained the data, the factors were lability/negativity and emotion regulation. The factors were not distinct as many items had loadings below the minimum norm applied (0,572). Furthermore, the items that loaded on the two factors did not in all cases load on the same factors as they did in the original factor structure (Molina et al., 2014). The internal consistency was acceptable for the lability/negativity subscale but it was not acceptable for the emotion regulation subscale. The correlation between the two subscales was low and negative (r = -0,22). The results suggest that the psychometric properties of the Icelandic version of the Emotion Regulation Checklist are not acceptable for children in this age group. It is strongly believed that the small sample size had an effect on the results of this study. Further evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Icelandic version of the questionnaire is needed with a larger sample.
Consequences of melt transport for uranium series disequilibrium in young lavas

Radioactive disequilibrium of 23Su nuclides is commonly observed in young lavas and has often been used to infer the rates of melting and melt migration. However, previous calculations do not actually include melt transport. Here we explore the behaviour of short-lived radionuclides in a new calculation that includes the fluid dynamics of melt segregation. We emphasize that series disequilibrium results from the differences in residence time of parent and daughter nuclides. Unlike previous models, contrasts in residence times are controlled by differences in transport velocities caused by melt separation and continued melt-solid interaction throughout the melting column. This "chromatographic" effect can produce larger excesses of both 23°Th and 226Ra within the same physical regime compared to previous calculations which do not include melt transport. Using this effect to account for U-series excesses leads to radically different inferences about the rates of melt migration. Where previous models require rapid melt extraction, our calculation can produce larger excesses with slow melt extraction. Nevertheless, reproducing the large (226Ra/Z3°Th) activity ratios observed in fresh mid-ocean ridge glasses is still problematic if the residence times are controlled solely by bulk equilibrium partitioning. While it still remains to be shown conclusively that the large 226Ra excesses are produced during melting, our calculation only requires differences in transport velocities to produce secular disequilibrium. Thus we speculate that other processes, such as crystal surface interaction, may also contribute to the production of the observed excesses.
Systematic and random errors in compression testing of trabecular bone

We sought to quantify the systematic and random errors associated with‐artifacts in the platens compression test for trabecular bone. Our hypothesis was that while errors may depend on anatomic site, they do not depend on apparent density and therefore have substantial random components. Trabecular bone specimens were first tested nondestructively using newly developed accurate protocols and then were tested again using the platens compression test. Percentage differences in modulus between the techniques (bovine) proximal tibia [n = 18] and humerus [n = 17] and human lumbar spine, [n = 9] were in the range of 4‐86%. These differences did not depend on anatomic site (p = 0.21) and were only weakly dependent on apparent density and specimen aspect ratio (r2 < 0.10). The mean percentage difference in modulus was 32.6% representing the systematic component of the end‐artifact error. Neglecting the minor variations explained by density and specimen size (approximately 10%), an upper bound on the random error from end‐artifacts in this experiment was taken as the SD of the modulus difference (±18.2%). Based on a synthesis of data taken from this study and from the literature, we concluded that the systematic underestimation error in the platens compression test can be only approximated and is in the range of 20‐40%; the substantial random error (±12.5%) confounds correction, particularly when the sample size is small. These errors should be considered when interpreting results from the platens test, and more accurate testing techniques should be used when such errors are not acceptable.
Views on Co-occupation between Elderly Persons with Dementia and Family

Background: Long-term support is essential for individuals with dementia in order to improve their and their caregivers’ quality of life. We need to investigate the unmet co-occupation needs of elderly persons with dementia and their family caregivers. This study aims to clarify the characteristics of co-occupations between family caregivers and elderly persons with dementia. Methods: We administered a questionnaire survey to 39 caregivers regarding co-occupations between persons with dementia and caregivers, the co-occupations they perceived as troublesome, and the co-occupations they preferred. Findings: Thirty-two caregivers (82.1%) perceived 74 co-occupations focused on the self-care of persons with dementia to be troublesome, while twenty-one (53.8%) indicated 30 co-occupations as their preferred ones. Those caregivers with preferred co-occupations placed significantly higher importance on troublesome co-occupations than the caregivers without preferred co-occupations. The number of troublesome co-occupations showed a weak positive correlation with dementia symptoms. The performance of troublesome co-occupations showed a weak negative correlation with the caregiving period, weekly amount of caregiving time. The satisfaction with troublesome co-occupations showed a weak negative correlation with the caregiving period. No other significant correlations were found. Conclusion: More than 80% of the family caregivers perceived the troublesome co-occupations. We need to assist caregivers with co-occupations that they perceive as troublesome. Furthermore, providing support based on co-occupation might improve family caregivers’ well-being and enable long-term home care.
Polysialic Acid Profiles of Mice Expressing Variant Allelic Combinations of the Polysialyltransferases ST8SiaII and ST8SiaIV*

The post-translational modification of the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) by polysialic acid (polySia) represents a remarkable example of dynamic modulation of homo- and heterophilic cell interactions by glycosylation. The synthesis of this unique carbohydrate polymer depends on the polysialyltransferases ST8SiaII and ST8SiaIV. Aiming to understand in more detail the contributions of ST8SiaII and ST8SiaIV to polySia biosynthesis in vivo, we used mutant mouse lines that differ in the number of functional polysialyltransferase alleles. The 1,2-diamino-4,5-methylenedioxybenzene method was used to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the polySia patterns. Similar to the wild-type genotype, long polySia chains (>50 residues) were detected in all genotypes expressing at least one functional polysialyltransferase allele. However, variant allelic combinations resulted in distinct alterations in the total amount of poly-Sia; the relative abundance of long, medium, and short polymers; and the ratio of polysialylated to non-polysialylated NCAM. In ST8SiaII-null mice, 45% of the brain NCAM was non-polysialylated, whereas a single functional allele of ST8SiaII was sufficient to polysialylate ∼90% of the NCAM pool. Our data reveal a complex polysialylation pattern and show that, under in vivo conditions, the coordinated action of ST8SiaII and ST8SiaIV is crucial to fine-tune the amount and structure of polySia on NCAM.
A Hybrid PNN-GMM classification scheme for speech emotion recognition

With the increasing demand for spoken language interfaces in human-computer interactions, automatic recognition of emotional states from human speeches has become of increasing importance. In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid scheme that combines the probabilistic neural network (PNN) and the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) for identifying emotions from speech signals. In order to handle mismatches more effectively, the universal background model (UBM) is incorporated into the GMM, and the resultant model is denoted as UBM-GMM. In the hybrid scheme, the strengths of the PNN and the UBM-GMM are combined through a novel conditional-probability based fusion algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme is able to achieve higher recognition accuracy than that obtained by using PNN or UBM-GMM alone.
Phase mixing of chaotic orbits as an irreversible ''relaxation'' mechanism

Orbits that are chaotic will tend to phase-mix exponentially through their accessible phase space. This phenomenon, commonly called ''chaotic mixing'', stands in marked contrast to phase mixing of regular orbits. It is inherently irreversible, and thus its associated e-folding time scale sets a condition on any process envisioned for emittance compensation. Accordingly, two questions arise. First, under what conditions does chaotic mixing manifest itself in beams? Second, when it is active, over what time scale does it operate? The work described here is part of an ongoing effort to answer these questions.
Integrating Domain Knowledge Differences into Modeling User Clicks on Search Result Pages

Computational cognitive models developed so far do not incorporate any effect of individual differences in domain knowledge of users in predicting user clicks on search result pages. We address this problem using a cognitive model of information search which enables us to use two semantic spaces having low (general semantic space) and high (special semantic space) amount of medical and health related information to represent respectively the low and high knowledge of users in this domain. Simulations on six difficult information search tasks and subsequent matching with actual behavioural data from 48 users (divided into low and high domain knowledge groups based on a domain knowledge test) were conducted. Results showed that the efficacy of modeling user selections on search results (in terms of the number of matches between users and the model and the mean semantic similarity values of the matched search results) is higher with the special semantic space compared to the general semantic space for high domain knowledge participants while for low domain knowledge participants it is the other way around. Implications for support tools that can be built based on these models are discussed.
Definition and properties to assess multi-agent environments as social intelligence tests

Social intelligence in natural and artificial systems is usually measured by the evaluation of associated traits or tasks that are deemed to represent some facets of social behaviour. The amalgamation of these traits is then used to configure the intuitive notion of social intelligence. Instead, in this paper we start from a parametrised definition of social intelligence as the expected performance in a set of environments with several agents, and we assess and derive tests from it. This definition makes several dependencies explicit: (1) the definition depends on the choice (and weight) of environments and agents, (2) the definition may include both competitive and cooperative behaviours depending on how agents and rewards are arranged into teams, (3) the definition mostly depends on the abilities of other agents, and (4) the actual difference between social intelligence and general intelligence (or other abilities) depends on these choices. As a result, we address the problem of converting this definition into a more precise one where some fundamental properties ensuring social behaviour (such as action and reward dependency and anticipation on competitive/cooperative behaviours) are met as well as some other more instrumental properties (such as secernment, boundedness, symmetry, validity, reliability, efficiency), which are convenient to convert the definition into a practical test. From the definition and the formalised properties, we take a look at several representative multi-agent environments, tests and games to see whether they meet these properties.
DC motor velocity control through a DC-to-DC power converter

This paper considers the development of a smooth "starter" for a DC motor based on a switch controlled DC-to-DC power converter of the "buck" type. The dynamic feedback controller is based on a suitable combination of passivity based control, flatness and a /spl Sigma/ - /spl Delta/ modulator implementation of the average designed controller. The scheme proposes an indirect regulation of the motor shaft speed by means of input current regulation on the "buck" converter circuit. As a consequence, the proposed feedback controller does not require the use of an electromechanical velocity sensor for measuring the angular velocity. The effectiveness of the proposed controller was verified by computer simulations using the P-Spice circuit simulation program.