Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Mechanics of Ventricular Contraction: A Cinefluorographic Study

Linear and planimetric measurements have been made on tracings of the right and left ventricular chambers from successive motion picture frames, obtained by cinefluorographic angiocardiography in anesthetized dogs. At the end of systole, varying amounts of residual blood, some 35 per cent of the diastolic volume, remain in the chamber. Filling occurs more rapidly than ventricular ejection and is virtually completed in early diastole. The left ventricular chamber is reduced in size during systole primarily by a reduction in width rather than a shortening of the longitudinal axis. Increased stroke output was accomplished by three mechanisms: (1) increased emptying of the ventricle by progressive shortening of the ventricular chamber; (2) increased filling in early diastole; (3) increased filling in the presystolic period, persumably because the atrial contraction more effectively distended the ventricle. The mechanisms responsible for the systolic residual blood and the retardation of filling which occurs early in diastole are discussed in terms of the anatomy, geometry and functional characteristics of the ventricular myocardium. A comparison is made of the right and left ventricles with reference to their luminal pressure and fiber tension relationships.
Role of hepatic and pancreatic oxidative stress in arsenic induced diabetic condition in Wistar rats.

Arsenic, a potent environmental toxicant has been reported to induce diabetes mellitus, but its potential biological mechanism(s) has not been much investigated. The present study was designed to correlate pancreatic and hepatic oxidative stress with arsenic induced diabetes mellitus in experimental animals. Male albino Wistar rats were administered with low (1.5 mg kg(-1) b.wt. ) and high (5.0 mg kg(-1) b.wt. ) sodium arsenite orally for 4 week. Hyperglycemic condition was observed in arsenic exposed groups as indicated by increased (P < 0.001) fasting plasma glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), which were accompanied by an increase in the level of lipid peroxidation (P < 0.001), protein oxidation (P < 0.05 at low dose and P < 0.001 at high dose) and nitric oxide (NO) (P < 0.001) in hepatic and pancreatic tissue compared to control. Furthermore, superoxide dismutase (SOD) (P < 0.001), catalase (CAT) (P < 0.001) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) (P < 0.05 at low dose and P < 0.001 at high dose) activities were elevated, while glutathione peroxidase (GPx) (P < 0.05 at low dose and P < 0.001 at high dose) and GSH level showed significant (P < 0.001) depletion in both studied tissue of arsenic exposed rats compared to control. Arsenic induced hepatotoxicity was manifested by an increase (P < 0.001) in serum ALT, AST and ALP. Arsenic exposure leads to accumulation of arsenic (P < 0.05) and significant (P < 0.05) depletion of copper and zinc level in hepatic and pancreatic tissue as compared to control. Our data suggests that sub-chronic arsenic exposure induces diabetic condition which may be mediated due to increased oxidative stress in hepatic and pancreatic tissue.
Cutting the Electricity Cost of Distributed Datacenters Through Smart Workload Dispatching

This letter proposes a smart inter- and intra-datacenter workload dispatching scheme, Joint Electricity price-aware and Cooling efficiency-aware load balancing (JEC), to cut the electricity cost of distributed datacenters. Evaluation shows JEC outperforms existing schemes and achieves significant reduction on the total electricity cost of distributed datacenters.
The effect of aquatic aerobic training on quality of work life in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients

Multiple Sclerosis or MS is a chronic disease debilitating nervous system and damaging the myelin of central system nerves (brain and spinal cord). The most common symptoms of this disease are fatigue, muscle cramps and vibration, diplopia, and unsteadiness and disorder in walking. The present study investigated the effects of a training program for 8 weeks in water to improve quality of work life of MS patients. The type of research is applied and the research methodology is semi-experimental, so out of 110 female MS patients, 54 were selected as sample of patients with disease intensity of grade 1 to 5, and means disease duration of 4 +- 1 and age range of 20 to 50 and were randomly divided into experimental group (25) and control groups (20). Training programs for experimental group consisted of 3 sessions per week for 8 weeks with the intensity of 50-60 percent of maximum heart rate. The qualities of lives of patients were measured by FAMS.Version2 questionnaire (before and after exercise). Data analysis was performed by descriptive statistics and correlated t. There was a significantly difference observed between pretest and posttest quality of work life and in the experimental (P = 0.001.) Doing water aerobic exercise significantly improved quality of work life and in the experimental group and improved the mean score of quality of work life in MS patients on the average of 9.28 per cent. Doing selected water aerobic exercise improves the quality of work life and in MS patients. According to these results, the respective experts can use such training as a complementary therapy alongside pharmaceutical treatments for MS patients.
SCA-resistant embedded processors: the next generation

Resistance against side-channel analysis (SCA) attacks is an important requirement for many secure embedded systems. Microprocessors and microcontrollers which include suitable countermeasures can be a vital building block for such systems. In this paper, we present a detailed concept for building embedded processors with SCA countermeasures. Our concept is based on ideas for the secure implementation of cryptographic instruction set extensions. On the one hand, it draws from known SCA countermeasures like DPA-resistant logic styles. On the other hand, our protection scheme is geared towards use in modern embedded applications like PDAs and smart phones. It supports multitasking and a separation of secure system software and (potentially insecure) user applications. Furthermore, our concept affords support for a wide range of cryptographic algorithms. Based on this concept, embedded processor cores with support for a selected set of cryptographic algorithms can be built using a fully automated design flow.
Baseline Is Fragile: On the Effectiveness of Stack Pivot Defense

Return-Oriented Programming (ROP) has become a widespread technique in recent software exploits. Various defenses have been proposed to thwart ROP, including randomization, Control-Flow Integrity (CFI), etc. However, ROP attacks have not been eliminated completely yet. Recently, ROP defenses based on stack pivot detection are put forward. In this paper, we investigate the checking mechanism in existing stack pivot defenses, including ROPGuard, Microsoft EMET, PBlocker and a detecting device design. They check validity of stack pointer with stack boundary information stored in system structure, e.g., Thread Information Block (TIB) in Windows. These stack pivot checkers are effective to detect ROP attacks on the premise that the baseline is safely stored. However, we find this assumption is unreliable because users have read-write access to TIB structure, which means stack range information can be tampered in user mode by an attacker, while existing solutions don't mention how to protect these baseline data. In this paper, we propose an attack method to bypass stack pivot checks through corrupting stack border value in TIB and prove that our attack can overcome current solutions indeed through case studies. Further, we discuss possible countermeasures to enhance security of current stack pivot defenses.
Agreement Is Poor Among Current Criteria Used to Define Response to Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

Background— Numerous criteria believed to define a positive response to cardiac resynchronization therapy have been used in the literature. No study has investigated agreement among these response criteria. We hypothesized that the agreement among the various response criteria would be poor. Methods and Results— A literature search was conducted with the keywords “cardiac resynchronization” and “response. ” The 50 publications with the most citations were reviewed. After the exclusion of editorials and reviews, 17 different primary response criteria were identified from 26 relevant articles. The agreement among 15 of these 17 response criteria was assessed in 426 patients from the Predictors of Response to Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (PROSPECT) study with Cohen's &kgr;-coefficient (2 response criteria were not calculable from PROSPECT data). The overall response rate ranged from 32% to 91% for the 15 response criteria. Ninety-nine percent of patients showed a positive response according to at least 1 of the 15 criteria, whereas 94% were classified as a nonresponder by at least 1 criterion. &kgr;-Values were calculated for all 105 possible comparisons among the 15 response criteria and classified into standard ranges: Poor agreement (&kgr;≤0.4), moderate agreement (0.4<&kgr;<0.75), and strong agreement (&kgr;≥0.75). Seventy-five percent of the comparisons showed poor agreement, 21% showed moderate agreement, and only 4% showed strong agreement. Conclusions— The 26 most-cited publications on predicting response to cardiac resynchronization therapy define response using 17 different criteria. Agreement between different methods to define response to cardiac resynchronization therapy is poor 75% of the time and strong only 4% of the time, which severely limits the ability to generalize results over multiple studies.
Invariant local shape descriptors: classification of large-scale shapes with local dissimilarities

We present a novel statistical shape descriptor for arbitrary three-dimensional shapes as a six-dimensional feature for generic classification purposes. Our feature parameterizes the complete geo-metrical relation of the global shape and additionally considers local dissimilarities while being invariant to the shape appearance. Our approach allows the classification of large-scale shapes with only small local dissimilarities. Our feature can be easily quantized and mapped into a histogram, which can be used for efficient and effective classification. We take advantage of GPU processing in order to efficiently compute our invariant local shape descriptor feature even for large-scale shapes. Our synthetic benchmarks show that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods for local shape dissimilarity classification. In general, it yields robust and promising recognition rates even for noisy data.
Effect of a Novel Calcium Channel Blocker on Abnormal Nocturnal Blood Pressure in Hypertensive Patients

The authors examined the effect of cilnidipine, a unique L/N‐type calcium channel blocker, on abnormal nocturnal blood pressure (BP) dipping in Japanese hypertensive patients in the real world. The Ambulatory Blood Pressure Control and Home Blood Pressure (Morning and Evening) Lowering by N‐Channel Blocker Cilnidipine (ACHIEVE‐ONE), a large‐scale clinical study, was designed to evaluate the effects of cilnidipine in daily medical practice. Among the study, 24‐hour ambulatory BP data were obtained from 615 patients and classified according to their nocturnal dipping status as extreme dippers, dippers, nondippers, or risers. A 12‐week treatment with cilnidipine significantly reduced 24‐hour BP in all groups (P<.001). Changes in nocturnal systolic BP (SBP) from baseline were −17.9 mm Hg from 154.6 mm Hg in risers and −11.9 mm Hg from 142.1 mm Hg, −6.6 mm Hg from 128.5 mm Hg, and 0.1 mm Hg from 115.8 mm Hg in nondippers, dippers, and extreme dippers, respectively. Changes from baseline in nocturnal SBP reduction rate were 8.2% in risers (P<.001) but −7.0% in extreme dippers (P<.001), while no change was observed in the nighttime SBP reduction rate for the total patients (−0.2%±9.6%, P=.617). Cilnidipine partially, but significantly, restored abnormal nocturnal dipping status toward a normal dipping pattern in hypertensive patients.
Paper Special Issue on next Generation Networks Software

To address the extreme dynamism and the rapidly changing user’s requirements in current information systems, an Autonomous Community Information System (ACIS) has been developed. ACIS is a decentralized architecture that forms a community of individual end-users (community members) having the same interests and demands at specified time and location. It admits them to mutually cooperate and share information without loading up any single node excessively. ACIS does not embrace the advantage of heterogeneity of the community nodes-nodes latencies. In this paper, ACIS-Hierarchy, decentralized hierarchical community architecture is proposed. It considers latency between community nodes as an important criterion that need to be optimized. It takes advantage of heterogeneity of the community nodes-nodes latencies to improve the communication delay among the community. In this paper, an efficient autonomous decentralized community construction technology is proposed to reduce: the communication delays among members taking into consideration the latency among them and the required time to join/leave. This paper illustrates the stepstep construction technology and the membership management operations for ACIS-Hierarchy. Experimental results show that ACIS-Hierarchy improves the community communication delay.
Pattern-based Software Architecture Recovery

This paper presents a technique for recovering the high level design of legacy software systems based on pattern matching and user defined architectural patterns. Architectural patterns are represented using a description language that is mapped to an attributed relational graph and allows to specify the legacy system components and their data and control flow interactions. Such pattern descriptions are viewed as queries that are applied against an entity-relation graph that represents information extracted from the source code of the software system. A multi-phase search algorithm with a bounded path-queue mechanism controls the matching process of the two graphs by which, the query is satisfied and its variables are instantiated. An association based scoring mechanism is used to rank the alternative results generated by the matching process. Experimental results of applying the technique on the Xfig system are also presented.
Cognitive interaction: Towards "cognitivity" requirements for the design of virtual assistants

Virtual assistants are promoted by the software industry as a radically new species of tools, but a clear definition of their specific way to interact with human users missing. The explicit goal of virtual assistants is to support human users by interacting with them in a fluent way, inspired by natural human communication and collaboration, which are now well understood by human sciences. This paper suggests getting inspiration from human sciences, particularly philosophy of mind and language, to better understand how virtual assistants should interact with human users to provide the expected support. The relevant concepts are summarized into a 5 levels interaction model. This model is intended to be used to architect new developments, to specify human-system interaction, and to classify or benchmark candidate solutions.
The effect of incorporating various reinforcement materials on flexural strength and impact strength of polymethylmethacrylate: A meta-analysis

Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) is a widely used denture base material with a major drawback of inferior mechanical properties. In the existing published reports, most studies indicate the superiority of the incorporation of various reinforcement materials in PMMA in terms of the flexural strength (FS) and impact strength (IS), whereas none shows the compilation and comparison of all. The present meta-analysis aims at synthesizing all the available data. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the existing reports to compare and evaluate the effect of various reinforcement materials on FS and IS of heat-cured acrylic resin (PMMA) by combining the available evidence in a meta-analysis. A search strategy was adopted using PubMed, ScienceDirect, Ebscohost, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials in February 2018 to screen research studies. These studies were screened against predetermined criteria for eligibility for meta-analysis. In the present meta-analysis, twenty articles were included. Out of 15 data available on reinforcement, 14 showed better results for IS of reinforced PMMA resin as compared to their respective control group. Out of the 25 available data, 11 showed better results for FS of reinforced PMMA resin when compared to their respective control group. The homogeneity test of meta-analysis confirmed acceptable heterogeneity among 15 reinforcement techniques of IS (i2 = 95.8%) and 25 reinforcement techniques of FS (i2 = 96.2%). A random-effects model and fixed-effects model were used for analysis. The present meta-analysis showed that reinforcement of PMMA can significantly increase FS and IS. Hence, it can be incorporated in clinical practice.
Performance evaluation of a TOA-based trilateration method to locate terminals in WLAN

Nowadays, several systems are available for outdoor localization, such as GPS, assisted GPS and other systems working on cellular networks. However, there is no proper location system for indoor scenarios. Research into designing location systems for 802.11 networks is being carried out, so locating mobile devices on global networks (GSM/cellular + GPS + WLAN) finally seems feasible. The technique presented in this paper uses existing wireless LAN infrastructure with minor changes to provide an accurate estimation of the location of mobile devices in indoor environments. This technique is based on round-trip time (RTT) measurements, which are used to estimate distances between the device to be located and WLAN access points. Each RTT measurement estimates the time elapsed between the RTS (Request-to-Send) and the CTS (Clear-to-Send) frame of the 802.11 standard. By applying trilateration algorithms, an accurate estimation of the mobile position is calculated.
Sketching Mental Images and Reasoning with Sketches: NEVILLE - a Computational Model of Mental & External Spatial Problem Solving *

*Diagrams and mental imagery play pivotal roles for many spatial reasoning tasks, and the close functional coupling of spatial reasoning with diagrams and imagery is often crucial for successful problem solving. Problem solving by way of model (e.g., diagram) construction is a frequent strategy. This contribution presents the computational model NEVILLE which proposes a visual model of the interplay between mental images and external sketches in human problem solving for geographic tasks. NEVILLE aims at behavioral adequacy for a selected set of phenomena such as limited working memory capacity and mental rotation of objects. An exemplary problem and its solution are presented.
Scheduling for virtual MIMO in single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) system

In this paper, we consider a joint frequency-domain scheduling and user-pairing problem for virtual MIMO in the single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) system, e.g., the uplink transmission for third generation partnership project-long term evolution (3GPP-LTE) standard. Due to the sub-carrier adjacency constraint inherent to SC-FDMA, its complexity becomes unmanageable. We propose a greedy heuristic algorithm for PF scheduling so as to deal with the complexity issue in this joint problem. It has been shown that its performance can reach up to 90% of its upper bound.
Cytosolic pH regulation in osteoblasts. Interaction of Na+ and H+ with the extracellular and intracellular faces of the Na+/H+ exchanger

The interaction of Na and H ions with the extracellular and intracellular sites of the Na+/H+ exchanger of the osteosarcoma cell line UMR-106 was investigated. Na ions interact with a single, saturable extracellular transport site. H+ and amiloride appear to compete with Na+ for binding to this site. The apparent affinity for extracellular Na+ (Nao+) and amiloride was independent of intracellular H+ (Hi+), Nai+, or an outwardly directed H+ gradient. The interaction of H+ with the intracellular face of the exchanger had a sigmoidal characteristic with a Hill coefficient of approximately 2. The apparent affinity for Hi+ was independent of Nao+ between 25 and 140 mM. The apparent affinity for Hi+, but not the number of intracellular sites, increased with the increase in the outwardly directed H+ gradient across the membrane. Nai+/Ho+ exchange (reverse mode) is an electroneutral process with a Na+/H+ stoichiometry of 1. The dependence of Nai+/Ho+ exchange on Nai+ was sigmoidal, with a Hill coefficient of 2.16. Nai+ competes with Hi+ for binding to at least the transport site. The apparent affinity for Nai+ decreased with the increase in the outwardly directed H+ gradient. High Ho+ inhibited exchange activity in the reverse mode. We conclude that intracellular Na+ and H+ can activate the exchanger. The exchanger has two separate and asymmetric extracellular and intracellular transport sites. The relative apparent affinities of the internal transport site for Na+ and H+ are determined by the direction and magnitude of the H+ gradient across the membrane. Kinetic characterization of the exchanger suggests that Na+/H+ exchange is compatible with a simultaneous transport model, although a ping-pong transport model could not be excluded.
Carbon dioxide and climate impulse response functions for the computation of greenhouse gas metrics:a multi-model analysis

Abstract. The responses of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other climate variables to an emission pulse of CO2 into the atmosphere are often used to compute the Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Global Temperature change Potential (GTP), to characterize the response timescales of Earth System models, and to build reduced-form models. In this carbon cycle-climate model intercomparison project, which spans the full model hierarchy, we quantify responses to emission pulses of different magnitudes injected under different conditions. The CO2 response shows the known rapid decline in the first few decades followed by a millennium-scale tail. For a 100 Gt-C emission pulse added to a constant CO2 concentration of 389 ppm, 25 ± 9% is still found in the atmosphere after 1000 yr; the ocean has absorbed 59 ± 12% and the land the remainder (16 ± 14%). The response in global mean surface air temperature is an increase by 0.20 ± 0.12 °C within the first twenty years; thereafter and until year 1000, temperature decreases only slightly, whereas ocean heat content and sea level continue to rise. Our best estimate for the Absolute Global Warming Potential, given by the time-integrated response in CO2 at year 100 multiplied by its radiative efficiency, is 92.5 × 10−15 yr W m−2 per kg-CO2. This value very likely (5 to 95% confidence) lies within the range of (68 to 117) × 10−15 yr W m−2 per kg-CO2. Estimates for time-integrated response in CO2 published in the IPCC First, Second, and Fourth Assessment and our multi-model best estimate all agree within 15% during the first 100 yr. The integrated CO2 response, normalized by the pulse size, is lower for pre-industrial conditions, compared to present day, and lower for smaller pulses than larger pulses. In contrast, the response in temperature, sea level and ocean heat content is less sensitive to these choices. Although, choices in pulse size, background concentration, and model lead to uncertainties, the most important and subjective choice to determine AGWP of CO2 and GWP is the time horizon.