Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance of hydrogenated diamond MISFET using Zr-Si-N as the dielectric layer

To better stabilize the hydrogen-terminated surface, a diamond based metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistor with Zr-Si-N dielectric layer has been investigated. On the diamond epitaxial layer grown by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition system, Pd films were patterned as the source and drain electrodes by photolithography and electron beam evaporation methods. Then, a Zr-Si-N dielectric layer and W metal film were fabricated as the gate structure by radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique. The device illustrates p-type depletion mode, in which the threshold voltage, maximum transconductance, drain current maximum, capacitance and dielectric constant were calculated to be 3.0V, 1.27mS/mm, -5.16 mA/mm, 0. 275μF/cm^2 and 7.8, respectively. The result suggest that Zr-Si-N dielectric layer is shown to have the ability to protect the two-dimensional hole gas.
The Simple Economics of Easter Island: A Ricardo-Malthus Model of Renewable Resource Use

This paper presents a general equilibrium model of renewable resource and population dynamics related to the Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model, with man as the predator and the resource base as the prey. The authors apply the model to the rise and fall of Easter Island, showing that plausible parameter values generate a 'feast and famine' pattern of cyclical adjustment in population and resource stocks. Near-monotonic adjustment arises for higher values of a resource regeneration parameter, as might apply elsewhere in Polynesia. The authors also describe other civilizations that might have declined because of population overshooting and endogenous resource degradation. Copyright 1998 by American Economic Association.
Metabolomics approach to serum biomarker for loperamide-induced constipation in SD rats

Loperamide has long been known as an opioid-receptor agonist useful as a drug for treatment of diarrhea resulting from gastroenteritis or inflammatory bowel disease as well as to induce constipation. To determine and characterize putative biomarkers that can predict constipation induced by loperamide treatment, alteration of endogenous metabolites was measured in the serum of Sprague Dawley (SD) rats treated with loperamide for 3 days using 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectral data. The amounts and weights of stool and urine excretion were significantly lower in the loperamide-treated group than the No-treated group, while the thickness of the villus, crypt layer, and muscle layer was decreased in the transverse colon of the same group. The concentrations of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatinine (Cr) were also slightly changed in the loperamide-treated group, although most of the serum components were maintained at a constant level. Furthermore, pattern recognition of endogenous metabolites showed completely separate clustering of the serum analysis parameters between the No-treated group and loperamide-treated group. Among 35 endogenous metabolites, four amino acids (alanine, glutamate, glutamine and glycine) and six endogenous metabolites (acetate, glucose, glycerol, lactate, succinate and taurine) were dramatically decreased in loperamide-treated SD rats. These results provide the first data pertaining to metabolic changes in SD rats with loperamide-induced constipation. Additionally, these findings correlate the changes in 10 metabolites with constipation.
Null Results in Brief Hemoglobin A 1 c Concentrations and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in Women

Division of Preventive Medicine, Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, The Donald W. Reynolds Center for Cardiovascular Research, Department of Medicine; Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health; and Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
Accuracy of Cone Beam Computed Tomography for Dental Implant Treatment Planning

This study evaluated the accuracy of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) measurements using post-surgical, implant placement, CBCT images by measuring the length and width of implants on CBCT images and comparing these measurements to the actual sizes of the implants, as well as investigated critical anatomical structure injuries after using CBCT for planning. Ninety-six post-operative CBCT scans of 171 dental implants, placed between October 2012 and March 2015, were included in the study. Each implant was measured on the CBCT images for both diameter and length, using the measuring tool in the CBCT software. The measured values were compared with the actual implant diameters and lengths and calculated as a percentage of error. The mean percentage of error was 2.26%. There were no significant differences in percentage of error between implant size, implant diameters, implant positions, upper jaw, lower jaw, anterior area, or posterior area (p>0.05). Anatomical structure injuries were not found post-operatively. The accuracy of CBCT used for measurement in this study was 97.74%, and comparable to that reported for other commercial CBCT machines. The use of CBCT for implant planning can avoid anatomical structure injuries.
Usability taxonomy and context-of-use taxonomy for usability analysis

The interest in developing usable products has led to the inclusion of usability aspects in product development processes. Generally speaking, the literature tends to define usability in overly brief and ambiguous terms and to describe its application in informal terms. Also there is a tendency to overlook characteristics of the context in which a product is to be used, and this usually means that the usability of a product in its operational environment is often diminished. For these reasons we propose in this work a detailed taxonomy which contains exhaustive descriptions of usability attributes, and a comprehensive taxonomy that describes context of use and its attributes by means of precise definitions.
Asthma and pregnancy: emerging evidence of epigenetic interactions in utero

Purpose of reviewPregnancy is arguably the most critical period of developmental programming. Here, we particularly focus on the emerging paradigm that disease propensity is epigenetically determined by maternal exposures that have the capacity to activate or silence fetal genes through alterations in DNA and histone methylation, histone acetylation, and chromatin structure. Recent findingsThe most notable recent candidate to emerge in this role has been dietary folate, a methyl donor clearly associated with changes in gene expression and disease susceptibility through gene hypermethylation. Animal studies also provide the first evidence that the allergy protective effects of microbial exposure in pregnancy may be mediated by changes in methylation of Th1 genes of the offspring. There is also emerging evidence that perinatal differences in immune function of allergy-prone newborns extend beyond previously recognized differences in effector T cell (Th1/Th2) function, to also include differences in neonatal regulatory T cell (Treg) and Th17 function, and moreover, that these pathways are also epigenetically regulated. SummaryNew studies reinforce the importance of in-utero exposures (including dietary nutrients, microbial products, cigarette smoking, and certain maternal mediations) in fetal immune development and in programming the susceptibility to asthma and allergic disease.
The effects of dietary methylcellulose in man.

Following a 7-day control period, five male volunteers consumed, on each of 23 consecutive days, a weight of methylcellulose (MC) equal to ten times the acceptable daily intake (25 mg/kg b.w.) approved by the EEC and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). The MC was well tolerated; no allergic responses were reported. Measurements before and at the end of the test period showed that the ingestion of MC, as a pre-hydrated gel, acted as a bulking agent in terms of increased faecal wet (p less than 0.05) and dry weight, with intestinal transit time increasing for three but decreasing for two of the volunteers. Small changes, well within the normal ranges, occurred in some haematological indices, serum lipids and a few plasma biochemistry parameters. There were no changes in urinalysis parameters or breath hydrogen concentrations. There were small (p less than 0.05) reductions in faecal volatile fatty acids and neutral sterols (mumol/g dry weight). The decreases in blood glucose and plasma insulin after 60 min were also within the normal clinical range. The data provide no indications of any adverse effects of methylcellulose resulting from its ingestion for 23 days at the level of 250 mg/kg b.w.
SEMG signal processing and analysis using wavelet transform and higher order statistics to characterize muscle force

An algorithm is proposed for processing and analyzing surface electromyography (SEMG) signals using wavelet transform and Higher Order Statistics (HOS). EMG signal acquires noise while travelling though different media. Wavelet denoising is performed in this research for initial EMG signal processing. With the appropriate choice of the Wavelet Function (WF), it is possible to remove interference noise effectively. Root Mean Square (RMS) difference and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) values are calculated to determine the most suitable WF. Results show that WF db2 performs denoising best among the other wavelets. Power spectrum analysis is performed to the denoised SEMG to indicate changes in muscle contraction. Furthermore, HOS method is applied for further efficient processing due to the unique properties of HOS applied to random time series. Gaussianity and linearity tests are conducted as part of HOS which shows that SEMG signal becomes less gaussian and more linear with increased force.
On mean distance in certain classes of graphs

The mean distance, μ(G), of a graph G is the arithmetic mean of the distances in G. Upper and lower bounds for the mean distance of a self-complementary graph of given order are obtained and the extremal grpahs are determined. It is shown that if t ≥ 2 is rational, then there exist (1) graphs with arbitrarily low or high edge density, (2) bipartite graphs and (3) oriented graphs with mean distance equal to t, and also (4) trees and (5) tournaments with mean distance arbitrarily close to t. A number of open problems are mentioned.
Augmenting Chinese Online Video Recommendations by Using Virtual Ratings Predicted by Review Sentiment Classification

In this paper we aim to resolve the recommendation problem by using the virtual ratings in online environments when user rating information is not available. As a matter of fact, in most of current websites especially the Chinese video-sharing ones, the traditional pure rating based collaborative filtering recommender methods are not fully qualified due to the sparsity of rating data. Motivated by our prior work on the investigation of user reviews that broadly appear in such sites, we hence propose a new recommender algorithm by fusing a self-supervised emoticon-integrated sentiment classification approach, by which the missing User-Item Rating Matrix can be substituted by the virtual ratings which are predicted by decomposing user reviews as given to the items. To test the algorithm’s practical value, we have first identified the self-supervised sentiment classification’s higher performance by comparing it with a supervised approach. Moreover, we conducted a statistic evaluation method to show the effectiveness of our recommender system on improving Chinese online video recommendations’ accuracy.
Stability of block LU factorization

Many of the currently popular 'block algorithms' are scalar algorithms in which the operations have been grouped and reordered into matrix operations. One genuine block algorithm in practical use is block LU factorization, and this has recently been shown by Demmel and Higham to be unstable in general. It is shown here that block LU factorization is stable if A is block diagonally dominant by columns. Moreover, for a general matrix the level of instability in block LU factorization can be founded in terms of the condition number kappa(A) and the growth factor for Gaussian elimination without pivoting. A consequence is that block LU factorization is stable for a matrix A that is symmetric positive definite or point diagonally dominant by rows or columns as long as A is well-conditioned.
Solving Configuration Optimization Problem with Multiple Hard Constraints: An Enhanced Multi-Objective Simulated Annealing Approach

This research concerns a type of configuration optimization problems frequently encountered in engineering design and manufacturing, where the envelope volume in space occupied by a number of components needs to be minimized along with other objectives such as minimizing connective lines between the components under various constraints. Since in practical applications the objectives and constraints are usually complex, the formulation of computationally tractable optimization becomes difficult. Moreover, unlike conventional multi-objective optimization problems, such configuration problems usually comes with a number of demanding constraints that are hard to satisfy, which results in the critical challenge of balancing solution feasibility with optimality. In this research, we first present the mathematical formulation for a representative problem of configuration optimization with multiple hard constraints, and then develop two versions of an enhanced multi-objective simulated annealing approach, referred to as MOSA/R, to solve this problem. To facilitate the optimization computationally, in MOSA/R, a versatile re-seed scheme that allows biased search while avoiding pre-mature convergence is designed. Our case study indicates that the new algorithm yields significantly improved performance towards both constrained benchmark tests and constrained configuration optimization problem. The configuration optimization framework developed can benefit both existing design/manufacturing practices and future additive manufacturing.
Multiscale Modeling of Carbon Nanotube-Epoxy Nanocomposites.

Multiscale Modeling of Carbon Nanotube-Epoxy Nanocomposites by Nicholas A. Fasanella Chair: Associate Professor Veera Sundararaghavan Epoxy-composites are widely used in the aerospace industry. In order to improve upon stiffness and thermal conductivity; carbon nanotube additives to epoxies are being explored. This dissertation presents multiscale modeling techniques to study the engineering properties of single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT)-epoxy nanocomposites, consisting of pristine and covalently functionalized systems. Using Molecular Dynamics (MD), thermomechanical properties were calculated for a representative polymer unit cell. Finite Element (FE) and orientation distribution function (ODF) based methods were used in a multiscale framework to obtain macroscale properties. An epoxy network was built using the dendrimer growth approach. The epoxy model was verified by matching the experimental glass transition temperature, density, and dilatation. MD, via the constant valence force field (CVFF), was used to explore the mechanical and dilatometric effects of adding pristine and functionalized SWNTs to epoxy. Full stiffness matrices and linear coefficient of thermal expansion vectors were obtained. The Green-Kubo method was used to investigate the thermal conductivity as a function of temperature for the various nanocomposites. Inefficient phonon transport at the xviii ends of nanotubes is an important factor in the thermal conductivity of the nanocomposites, and for this reason discontinuous nanotubes were modeled in addition to long nanotubes. To obtain continuum-scale elastic properties from the MD data, multiscale modeling was considered to give better control over the volume fraction of nanotubes, and investigate the effects of nanotube alignment. Two methods were considered; an FE based method, and an ODF based method. The FE method probabilistically assigned elastic properties of elements from the MD lattice results based on the desired volume fraction and alignment of the nanotubes. For the ODF method, a distribution function was generated based on the desired amount of nanotube alignment; and the stiffness matrix was calculated. A rule of mixture approach was implemented in the ODF model to vary the SWNT volume fraction. Both the ODF and FE models are compared and contrasted. ODF analysis is significantly faster for nanocomposites and is a novel contribution in this thesis. Multiscale modeling allows for the effects of nanofillers in epoxy systems to be characterized without having to run costly experiments.
Triple combination therapy with amlodipine, valsartan, and hydrochlorothiazide vs dual combination therapy with amlodipine and hydrochlorothiazide for stage 2 hypertensive patients

Objective: This post hoc analysis evaluated the efficacy and safety of triple therapy with amlodipine/valsartan+hydrochlorothiazide (Aml/Val+HCTZ) vs dual therapy with Aml+HCTZ in stage 2 hypertensive patients. Methods: The analysis included patients from an eight-week, multicenter, double-blind study, randomized to Aml/Val 10/160 mg or Aml 10 mg groups, who received add-on HCTZ 12.5 mg at week 4 if mean sitting systolic blood pressure (msSBP) was >130 mmHg. Results: Of the patients receiving Aml/Val+HCTZ and Aml+HCTZ, 98% (N = 133/136) and 96% (N = 200/208) completed the study, respectively. Baseline characteristics were similar across groups (Caucasians, 80.2%; diabetics, 14.8%; age, 58.6 years [28.2% ≥ 65 years]; body mass index, 31 kg/m2; mean sitting blood pressure (msBP), 171.5/95.5 mmHg [18% msSBP ≥ 180 mmHg]). Aml/Val+HCTZ provided significantly greater msBP reductions from baseline to week 8 than Aml+HCTZ (30.5/13.8 vs 24.3/8.3 mmHg, P < 0.0001). The incremental msBP reduction (week 4 to 8) with HCTZ added to Aml/Val was greater than when added to Aml (6.9/3.5 vs 3.1/1.0 mmHg, P < 0.01). Treatments were well tolerated with similar overall incidence of adverse events (Aml/Val+HCTZ: 33.8%, Aml+HCTZ: 33.2%). Conclusion: Aml/Val+HCTZ provided significantly greater BP reductions than Aml+HCTZ in patients with stage 2 hypertension. Aml/Val+HCTZ triple therapy may be a suitable option for patients requiring more than two agents to reach target BP.
Simulation study of Four Element MIMO Antenna System with Pattern and Polarization Diversity

In this paper, two configurations of previous work are extensively studied, namely pattern diversity and hybrid (pattern and polarization) diversity configuration. The first configuration provides the pattern diversity whereas second configuration provides both the pattern as well as the polarization diversity which helps to mitigate the multipath propagation effect. Both the configurations are designed over a small ground plane of size 100 × 60 × 0.8 mm 3 . The isolations between antenna elements for both the configurations are better than -12 dB. The performances of both configurations are evaluated through S-parameters and radiation patterns. The diversity parameters namely, envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) and mean effective gain (MEG) are also studied. Keywords— ECC, MEG, pattern diversity, PIFA, polarization diversity.
Negative Pressure Pulmonary Edema after Laryngospasm: A Revisit with a Case Report

Laryngospasm, a brief closure of the vocal cords is not an uncommon perioperative occurrence. If recognized and managed appropriately, the effects are transient and reversible. However, in rare cases where recognition and management are delayed, the consequences are associated with a high morbidity including desaturation, awareness, negative pressure pulmonary edema, and mortality. This case highlights that of a healthy woman admitted the intensive care unit (ICU) for negative pressure pulmonary edema (NPPE) after an episode of laryngospasm.
Quantum cryptography for secure free-space communications

The secure distribution of the secret random bit sequences known as 'key' material, is an essential precursor to their use for the encryption and decryption of confidential communications. Quantum cryptography is a new technique for secure key distribution with single-photon transmissions: Heisenberg's uncertainty principle ensures that an adversary can neither successfully tap the key transmissions, nor evade detection (eavesdropping raises the key error rate above a threshold value). We have developed experimental quantum cryptography systems based on the transmission of non- orthogonal photon polarization states to generate shared key material over line-of-sight optical links. Key material is built up using the transmission of a single-photon per bit of an initial secret random sequence. A quantum-mechanically random subset of this sequence is identified, becoming the key material after a data reconciliation stage with the sender. We have developed and tested a free-space quantum key distribution (QKD) system over an outdoor optical path of approximately 1 km at Los Alamos National Laboratory under nighttime conditions. Results show that free-space QKD can provide secure real-time key distribution between parties who have a need to communicate secretly. Finally, we examine the feasibility of surface to satellite QKD.
An approach to improving the structure of error-handling code in the linux kernel

The C language does not provide any abstractions for exception handling or other forms of error handling, leaving programmers to devise their own conventions for detecting and handling errors. The Linux coding style guidelines suggest placing error handling code at the end of each function, where it can be reached by gotos whenever an error is detected. This coding style has the advantage of putting all of the error-handling code in one place, which eases understanding and maintenance, and reduces code duplication. Nevertheless, this coding style is not always applied. In this paper, we propose an automatic program transformation that transforms error-handling code into this style. We have applied our transformation to the Linux 2.6. 34 kernel source code, on which it reorganizes the error handling code of over 1800 functions, in about 25 minutes.
A Privacy-Preserving Framework for Mining Continuous Sequences in Trajectory Systems

The popularization of mobile devices and satellite navigation systems has brought new opportunities and challenges to many location-based services (LBSs), intelligent transport systems (ITSs) and fleet management systems. Those systems store trajectory data in moving object databases and trajectory data warehouses. Trajectory datasets can be used in many data mining tasks, e.g., for mining traffic patterns, frequently visited places, and so on. However, such data mining tasks introduce security and location privacy threats to companies (data owners) and mobile objects that generate trajectories. In this paper, in order to overcome the location privacy threats, we present a technique that blurs trajectories according to user-defined privacy profiles and a data mining algorithm called MCSPP that is capable of mining continuous sequences from blurred trajectories. To test that our approach works correctly, we have implemented an experimental environment. Moreover, the conducted experiments have shown a good performance and scalability of the MCSPP algorithm.