Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stability analysis for a type of proportional T-S fuzzy control systems using the off-axis circle criterion

In this paper, on the basis of the off-axis circle criterion, a sufficient condition with a simple graphical explanation is derived to guarantee the global asymptotic stability for a type of multi-rule proportional Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy control systems. Three numerical examples are given to demonstrate how to use the proposed method in analyzing the T-S fuzzy control systems.
The geometry of discombinations and its applications to semi-inverse problems in anelasticity

The geometrical formulation of continuum mechanics provides us with a powerful approach to understand and solve problems in anelasticity where an elastic deformation is combined with a non-elastic component arising from defects, thermal stresses, growth effects or other effects leading to residual stresses. The central idea is to assume that the material manifold, prescribing the reference configuration for a body, has an intrinsic, non-Euclidean, geometrical structure. Residual stresses then naturally arise when this configuration is mapped into Euclidean space. Here, we consider the problem of discombinations (a new term that we introduce in this paper), that is, a combined distribution of fields of dislocations, disclinations and point defects. Given a discombination, we compute the geometrical characteristics of the material manifold (curvature, torsion, non-metricity), its Cartan's moving frames and structural equations. This identification provides a powerful algorithm to solve semi-inverse problems with non-elastic components. As an example, we calculate the residual stress field of a cylindrically symmetric distribution of discombinations in an infinite circular cylindrical bar made of an incompressible hyperelastic isotropic elastic solid.
High-Selectivity Tunable Balanced Bandpass Filter With Constant Absolute Bandwidth

This brief presents a new and effective approach for designing a high-selectivity tunable balanced bandpass filter (BPF) with constant absolute bandwidth (ABW). The filter is composed of two open-loop resonators with a pair of symmetrically loaded varactor diodes to obtain tunable responses. The major design concept relies on choosing the particular position on the resonator for loading the varactor diodes. The desired variation slopes of the external quality factor and coupling coefficient can be easily obtained for realizing the constant ABW of the tunable BPF. Frequency-dependent source-load coupling between the feed lines are introduced for realizing two adaptive transmission zeros (TZs) on both sides of the tunable passband. Thus, during the frequency-tuning process, high selectivity of the proposed filter can be kept. Meanwhile, the common-mode suppression is optimized to an acceptable level in the frequency-agile range of the differential-mode passband by loading the stub and resistor in the series at the center of the resonator. For demonstration, a tunable balanced BPF with the constant ABW and two TZs is designed and implemented. The simulated and measured results are presented, showing good agreement.
Can We Modulate the Clinical Course of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases by Our Current Treatment Strategies?

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are chronic disabling lifelong diseases which may be disturbed by severe flares and anatomical complications requiring surgery. Until the very last years there was no clear indication that treatment was able to modify the long-term natural history of the disease. In particular, there are no data demonstrating a clear improvement through the period 1950–2003 in disease activity, occurrence of complications and need for surgery, in spite of an increased use of immunosuppressants since the 1990s. However, in inflammatory bowel disease, both thiopurines and methotrexate are very efficient in about one half of the patients, and in responders, may heal the mucosa and decrease the need for surgery. The early use of immunosuppressants in selected patients may have an impact on occurrence of severe flares and complications, and need for surgery. Moreover, anti-TNF now used for 10 years in Crohn’s disease and for 5 years in ulcerative colitis demonstrated in two thirds of the patients a remarkable anatomic effect, healing the mucosa, closing fistulae and preventing strictures. Infliximab does prevent endoscopic recurrence following ileal resection for Crohn’s disease. Actually, because irreversible anatomical damage may develop during the first years of disease, there is a need to classify early in the course of the disease patients who will benefit from anti-TNF and classical immunosuppressants, respectively. There is the need in the next few years to better define these subgroups and to compare different strategies within each group through randomized interventional studies.
Physiological and Clinico- Pharmacological Study of High sensitivity C-reactive protein, as a Prognosis Biomarker in Acute Coronary Syndrome and its Level in AtherostatinTreatment

Inflammatory markers such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) are elevated in Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS), but there is little information on its relationship to prognosis ACS in association with Atherostatin usage. The current was designed to assay the relationship between hsCRP and prognosis in patients with ACS consuming Atherostatin in two different doses.90 patients hospitalized with ACS diagnosis were selected for current study. The patients were randomly divided in to two groups in respect of hsCRP level: with hsCRP under 10 and with hsCRP further than 10 and then were taken under treatment of atherostatin 40 or 80 mg for 6 months. The patient with hsCRP more than 10 was sampled again 3weeks later to rule out infectious factors that increasehs CRP. After 6 months every two groups was examined for echocardiography, electrocardiography and follow-up the status of disease. Two groups with high dose (80 mg atherostatin) and moderate dose (40 mg atherostatin) showed a totally decrease about 26 %( p<0.05) in hsCRP level after 6 month treatment with atherostatin. However, the decrease amount of hsCRP in group 40 mg was higher than in 80 mg group but the number of renewed hospitalization during 6 month in 80 mg was lower than group 40 mg. On the base of this study, it was recommended that for alleviating the risks of cardiovascular events and decreasing repetitive hospitalization, statin with high dosage would rather administer to patients with acute coronary syndrome without consideration of cholesterol and hsCRP levels. Moderate dosage of Atherostatin is proposed to use,
Nondestructive measurement system for welding residual stress by ultrasonic method

Residual stresses are one of the most important challenges to the safety of parts and structures. Considering the disadvantages of the traditional measurement of residual stress which are time-consuming, consumption, destruction, huge volume, Ultrasonic stress measurement installation is improved to meet the measurement of thin wall welded structure. The acoustical theory is introduced. Ultrasonic stress measurement experimental installation is designed. The longitudinal residual stress and transverse residual stress of twin wire welded plate are measured by the proposed system. The result of the ultrasonic method is verified by laser hologram interference hole-drilling method and finite element method. The measurement process by Ultrasonic method is not only nondestructive, but also real-time.
Treatment of Primary Axillary Hyperhidrosis by Fractional Microneedle Radiofrequency: Is it Still Effective after Long-term Follow-up?

Background: Primary axillary hyperhidrosis (PAH) is a chronic idiopathic disorder causing major stress in patients. Among the common therapies for PAH, only surgical interventions have proven feasible as a permanent solution. Objective and Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of fractional microneedle radiofrequency (FMR) as an alternative permanent treatment for PAH with long-term follow-up. Materials and Methods: This was a single-blind, sham-controlled comparative study. Twenty-five patients with severe PAH were provided three treatments of FMR at 3-week intervals (the treatment group), and a control group was provided the sham treatment. Clinical efficacy was evaluated using the hyperhidrosis disease severity scale (HDSS) at baseline and the end of the study, as well as during the 1 year follow-up phase. Results: HDSS demonstrated significant improvement after treatment in the treatment group compared to the sham control. The mean (±standard deviation) of HDSS in the group being treated with radiofrequency was 2.50 (±0.88) after 1 year follow-up, and that of the control group was 3.38 (±0.49; P < 0.001). Follow-up results show that there were 10 patients (41.6%) with no relapse and 11 patients (45.9%) with relapse after 1 year. There was a significant correlation between HDSS changes in relapse and body mass index (BMI) (P = 0.03). Conclusion: Treatment of PAH with FMR is a safe and noninvasive procedure with a positive therapeutic effect on HDSS. It is recommended, however, that sessions of FMR be repeated after 1 year, particularly in overweight patients with high BMIs. Clinical Trial Registration: IRCT2013111915455N1. Level of Evidences: Level II-1.
Measuring Written Language Ability in Narrative Samples

A language-levels model was used to analyze written narratives. The results have implications for instruction and for documenting change in the story-writing performance of students with and without special needs in the area of written language development. This study was based on stories written at midyear by 277 students (224 typical learners and 53 children with special difficulty in the area of written language) across grade levels one through five. Measures that differentiated students by grade level and special difficulty are reported by language level. Discourse-level measures were total words, total T-units, and story scores. Sentence-level measures were sentence codes (simple or complex, correct or incorrect), mean length of T-unit, and number and types of conjunctions. Word-level measures were number of different words and proportions of words spelled correctly. Gender differences were found for productivity measures in favor of females; no differences were found when comparing stories written by African American and Caucasian students.
Finding the Site of Origin and Velocity of Propagation in a Short One-Dimensional Strand from Two Extracellular Waveforms

In cardiac muscle times of excitation, the site of origin of excitation and propagation velocity usually are determined from the intrinsic deflections of a collection of extracellular waveforms. Separate waveforms are measured from each site for which an excitation time is to be found. Most of the information in each measured waveshape is discarded, even though waveshape features have been shown to be closely related to propagation characteristics. The objective of this paper is to examine the possibility of more fully utilizing all of the information in the extracellular waveform. Would a small number of measured waveforms, used more completely, be sufficient to find the site of origin, propagation velocity, and excitation times? A computer simulation of intra-and extracellular excitation along a one-dimensional cylindrical cardiac strand provided the framework for the evaluation. The dimensions and the-conductivity of the strand and the action potential shape were assumed known. Extracellular waveforms were simulated at 2 of 51 points on the strand and thereafter taken to be "measurements. " The objectives were to calculate, from the "measured" waveforms, the site of origin of excitation (possibly anywhere along the strand), the speed of propagation, and the times of excitaion at all 51 points. Propagation speed was assumed constant, but of unknown magnitude, in both directions away from the site of excitation. Notable results of the study include correctly differentiating among different sequences of excitation having identical time differences between the intrinsic deflections of the two known extracellular waveforms.
A Quantitative and Qualitative Study of Elementary School Children’s Vocabularies

AbstractThis study employed a group test and individual interviews to investigate quantitative and qualitative aspects of students’ vocabularies. Subjects for the group test were 216 higher, middle-, and lower ability 2nd, 4th, and 6th graders. Subjects for the interviews were 8 high- and low-ability 3rd and 5th graders. All subjects were from a middle-class suburb of a large midwestern city. The group test consisted of two forms of a 36-item, multiple-choice test comprising words at various difficulty levels. Subjects received one form of the test as a reading test and the other as a listening test in a counterbalanced fashion. The interviews required subjects to give two meanings for words in isolation, identify two meanings of words presented in two contexts, and distinguish between the meanings of closely related words. An ANOVA on the group test indicated significant (p < .01) differences caused by grade, ability, mode, and word difficulty. On the interviews, students performed best at identifying mu.
FERTILITY INTENTIONS AND EARLY LIFE HEALTH STRESS AMONG WOMEN IN EIGHT INDIAN CITIES: TESTING THE REPRODUCTIVE ACCELERATION HYPOTHESIS

Summary In life history theory, early life adversity is associated with an accelerated reproductive tempo. In harsh and unpredictable conditions in developing societies fertility is generally higher and the reproductive tempo faster than in more secure environments. This paper examines whether differences in female anthropometry, particularly adult height, are associated with fertility intentions of women in urban environments in India. The study population consists of women aged 15–29 (N=4485) in slums and non-slums of eight Indian cities in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) of 2005–2006. Adult height is taken as a proxy for early childhood health and nutritional condition. Fertility intentions are examined by using two variables: the desire to have a child or another child, and to have it relatively soon, as indicative of accelerated reproductive scheduling. Evidence supporting the acceleration hypothesis is found in two urban frames out of 26 examined in a two-staged multinomial logistic model. In three cases, the relationship between fertility intentions and height is the opposite than expected by the acceleration hypothesis: taller women have a higher predictive probability of desiring a(nother) child and/or narrower birth spacing. Potential explanations for the partly contradictory relationship between the childhood health indicator and fertility intentions are discussed.
Epidemiology and clinical course of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF) is increasingly recognized as a major public health problem worldwide. Significant advances have been made in our understanding of the epidemiology of HFPEF over the past two decades, with the publication of numerous population‐based epidemiological studies, large heart failure registries, and randomized clinical trials. These recent studies have provided detailed characterization of larger numbers of patients with HFPEF than ever before. This review summarizes the state of current knowledge with regards to the disease burden, patient characteristics, clinical course, and outcomes of HFPEF. Despite the wealth of available data, substantive gaps in knowledge were identified. These gaps represent opportunities for further research in HFPEF, a syndrome that is clearly a rising societal burden and that is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality.
Low-Threshold RNGH Instabilities in Quantum Cascade Lasers

We show that low-threshold Risken–Nummedal–Graham–Haken (RNGH) instabilities in quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) occur due to a combined effect of the carrier coherence and population grating induced in the gain medium. QCLs with a few mm long cavity exhibit intermittent RNGH self-pulsations while regular self-pulsations are possible in short-cavity QCLs, with the cavity length of 100 μm or smaller. Transient behavior to RNGH self-pulsations in short-cavity QCLs shows features resembling cooperative superradiance which opens a practical way of achieving ultrashort pulse production regimes in the mid-infrared spectral range.
The triad of paradigms in globalization, ICT, and knowledge management interplay

Purpose – The paper aims to investigate the synergetic effects of knowledge management (KM) and information and communication technologies (ICT) on globalization progression. Then the article seeks to portray how this synergy can be employed in various KM activities and processes to transubstantiate a national company into an effective boundaryless global knowledge‐based enterprise (GKBE). Design/methodology/approach – The article reviews and interprets the relevant literature on both globalization and knowledge management technology. The resultant insights are used to reveal the synergy and to develop a butterfly model that shows the interconnectedness and the domino effects of KM activities on globalization advancement.Findings – Owing to the significant differences between the national and the global knowledge‐based enterprise (GKBE) the butterfly framework has been proposed, utilizing the benefits from the synergy of the major globalization components. The call for implementing KM practices to improve .
Cortical thickness: an early morphological marker of atherosclerotic renal disease.

BACKGROUND Although kidney size is still the most commonly used morphological parameter, it is not sensitive enough for early detection of atherosclerotic renal disease (ARD). The purpose of this work was to evaluate morphological abnormalities on both post-stenotic and contralateral kidneys, by using spiral computed tomography angiography (CTA). METHODS Spiral CTA was performed in 49 hypertensive patients. Renal diameters, renal length, and cortical thickness were measured in 26 post-stenotic kidneys, 26 contralateral kidneys and 46 control kidneys. Mean cortical thickness, cortical area, and medullary length were calculated. RESULTS The right and left control kidneys were of comparable morphology. The post-stenotic kidneys showed significant cortical atrophy. The contralateral kidneys also underwent cortical disease, as judged by comparison with control kidneys. A threshold of 800 mm2 was identified for the cortical area that allowed us to distinguish control kidneys from post-stenotic kidneys. Similarly, a threshold of 8 mm was identified for mean cortical thickness. Renal length was still within normal range in all kidney groups. The measurement of superior pole segments appeared to be more sensitive than measurement at other locations for identifying significant intrarenal lesions. There was no significant correlation between clinical and morphological parameters. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that cortical parameters are more sensitive for early diagnosis of ARD than kidney size. Cortical atrophy should be a useful marker for guidance for revascularization.
Vegetative and Seed-Specific Forms of Tonoplast Intrinsic Protein in the Vacuolar Membrane of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Reports from a number of laboratories describe the presence of a family of proteins (the major intrinsic protein family) in a variety of organisms. These proteins are postulated to form channels that function in metabolite transport. In plants, this family is represented by the product of NOD26, a nodulation gene in soybean that encodes a protein of the peribacteroid membrane, and tonoplast intrinsic protein (TIP), an abundant protein in the tonoplast of protein storage vacuoles of bean seeds (KD Johnson, H Höfte, MJ Chrispeels [1990] Plant Cell 2: 525-532). Other homologs that are induced by water stress in pea and in Arabidopsis thaliana and that are expressed in the roots of tobacco have been reported, but the location of the proteins they encode is not known. We now report the presence and derived amino acid sequences of two different TIP proteins in A. thaliana. alpha-TIP is a seed-specific protein that has 68% amino acid sequence identity with bean seed TIP; gamma-TIP is expressed in the entire vegetative body of A. thaliana and has 58% amino acid identity with bean seed TIP. Both proteins are associated with the tonoplast. Comparisons of the derived amino acid sequences of the seven known plant proteins in the major intrinsic protein family show that genes with similar expression patterns (e.g. water stress-induced or seed specific) are more closely related to each other than the three A. thaliana homologs are related. We propose that the nonoverlapping gene expression patterns reported here, and the evolutionary relationships indicated by the phylogenetic tree, suggest a functional specialization of these proteins.
AN EFFICIENT STRATEGY TO ESTIMATE INTENSITY AND PREVALENCE: SAMPLING METACERCARIAE IN FISHES

Accurate estimates of population-level parameters of parasites, such as prevalence and mean intensity, require large sample sizes. The processing of such samples becomes an overwhelming task when parasites are abundant, as with trematode metacercariae in fishes. In the present study, a subsampling method reduced processing time while maintaining an accurate estimation of metacercariae prevalence and intensity across 3 trematode species and 2 fish species. By double sampling, we generated regression models to predict total intensity from a combination of subsamples. The key to this approach lies in choosing the best strategy from a large number of potential subsampling routines. We selected the most efficient routine by weighing the costs and benefits of each. This approach, however, could not provide an estimate of parasite abundance when no parasites occurred in the initial subsample. To estimate prevalence accurately, our subsampling algorithm prescribed an additional sampling sequence using a new, optimal regression model. In addition, we optimized the technique to measure three parasite species infecting a single host simultaneously. This efficient subsampling procedure decreased the overall processing time per host by up to 91% while obtaining accurate (R2 > 0.8) estimates for both prevalence and intensity.
Appreciative Inquiry and Autonomy-Supportive Classes in Business Education

In this article, we describe 10 separate classroom experiences where an appreciative inquiry (AI) exercise was used for course creation. Post-exercise surveys of students showed that the AI exercise was perceived to be a successful practice. Students indicated putting effort toward reaching their peak learning experience and were satisfied with the course. Because students aided in the design of how the course material would be covered, they were more motivated to participate and thus helped construct an autonomy-supportive classroom. Implications for practice and issues for how collective course construction can foster growth mind-sets and release students’ imaginations toward what was possible in the classroom are discussed.
Pareto-optimal beamforming for the MISO interference channel with partial CSI

We consider the problem of finding Pareto-optimal (PO) operating points for the multiple-input single-output (MISO) interference channel when the transmitters have statistical (covariance) channel knowledge. We devise a computationally efficient algorithm, based on semidefinite relaxation, to compute the PO rates and the enabling beamforming vectors. We illustrate the effectiveness of our algorithm by a numerical example.