Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Innovative Biomimetic Hybrid Composites to Repair Multifunctional Anatomical Region

The development of biomimetic materials for osteochondral tissue substitution and repair can be the start for a revolution in the classical procedures of orthopaedic surgery. The persisting problems, linked to the absence of a complete functional recovery of the articulation and to the stabilization and protraction of the half-life of an articular prosthesis can be overcome by the new class of osteochondral substitutes. The characteristics of the artificial bone tissue are drastically different from those of the natural one and this is mainly due to the absence of the peculiar self-organizing interaction between apatite crystals and proteic matrix. At this purpose a biomimetic approach was used in which apatitic phases are directly nucleated on different macromolecular matrices, which act as template and induce peculiar physico-chemical features in the mineral phase to create a substitute for osteochondral lesions. In particular a biologically inspired approach was applied to nucleate bone-like hydroxyapatite (HA) nanocrystals on self-assembling collagen fibers. Biohybrid composite materials were obtained mimicking composition, structure and morphology of human osteochondral interfaces. [1–4]Copyright © 2010 by ASME
Salience Assignment for Multiple-Instance Regression

We present a Multiple-Instance Learning (MIL) algorithm for determining the salience of each item in each bag with respect to the bag's real-valued label. We use an alternating-projections constrained optimization approach to simultaneously learn a regression model and estimate all salience values. We evaluate this algorithm on a significant real-world problem, crop yield modeling, and demonstrate that it provides more extensive, intuitive, and stable salience models than Primary-Instance Regression, which selects a single relevant item from each bag.
Diffusional creep and creep degradation in the dispersion-strengthened alloy TD-NiCr

Dispersoid-free regions were observed in TD-NiCr (Ni-20Cr-2ThO2) after slow strain rate testing in air from 1145 to 1590 K. Formation of the dispersoid-free regions appears to be the result of diffusional creep. The net effect of this creep is the degradation of TD-NiCr to a duplex microstructure. Degradation is further enhanced by the formation of voids and integranular oxidation in the thoria-free regions. These regions apparently provided sites for void formation and oxide growth since the strength and oxidation resistance of Ni-20Cr is much less than Ni-20Cr-2ThO2. This localized oxidation does not appear to reduce the static load bearing capacity of TD-NiCr since long stress rupture lives were observed even with heavily oxidized microstructures. But this oxidation does significantly reduce the ductility and impact resistance of the material. Dispersoid-free bands and voids were also observed for two other dispersion strengthened alloys, TD-NiCrAl and IN-853. Thus, it appears that diffusional creep is charactertistic of dispersion-strengthened alloys and can play a major role in the creep degradation of these materials.
Semantic search on the Web

Web search is a key technology of the Web, since it is the primary way to access content on the Web. Current standard Web search is essentially based on a combination of textual keyword search with an importance ranking of the documents depending on the link structure of the Web. For this reason, it has many limitations, and there are a plethora of research activities towards more intelligent forms of search on the Web, called semantic search on the Web, or also Semantic Web search. In this paper, we give a brief overview of existing such approaches, including own ones, and sketch some possible future directions of research.
Virtual Reality and Affective Computing Techniques for Face-to-face Communication

We present a multi-modal affective virtual environment (VE) for job interview training. The proposed platform aims to support real-time emotion-based simulations between an ECA and a human. The first goal is to train candidates (students, job hunters, etc.) to better master their emotional states and behavioral skills. The users’ emotional and behavior states will be assessed using different human-machine interfaces and biofeedback sensors. Collected data will be processed in real-time by a behavioral engine. A preliminary experiment was carried out to analyze the correspondence between the users’ perceived emotional states and the collected data. Participants were instructed to look at a series of sixty IAPS pictures and rate each picture on the following dimensions : joy, anger, surprise, disgust, fear and sadness.
Assessing the mechanism of kidney stone comminution by a lithotripter shock pulse

Comminution of axisymmetric stones by a lithotripter shock wave was studied experimentally and theoretically. In experiments, shock waves were generated by a research electrohydraulic lithotripter modeled after the Dornier HM‐3, and stones were made from U‐30 cement. Cylindrical stones of various length to diameter ratios, stones of conical shape, and stones with artificial cracks were studied. In other cases, baffles to block specific waves that contribute to spallation or squeezing were used, and glycerol was used to suppress cavitation. The theory was based on the elasticity equations for an isotropic medium. The equations were written in finite differences and integrated numerically. Maximum compression, tensile and shear stresses were predicted depending on the stone shape and side‐surface condition in order to investigate the importance of the stone geometry. It is shown that the theoretical model used explains the observed position of a crack in a stone. The theory also predicts the efficiency of stone fragmentation depending on its shape and size, as well as on the presence of cracks on the stone surface and baffles near the stone.
Functional diversity of soil organisms: a review of recent research activities in Germany

The aim of this review is to provide an overview of recent investigations on the functional diversity of soil organisms and to elucidate whether a combination of different phenotypic and genotypic assessment methods can give new insights into the relation of structural (phylogenetic) and functional diversity of soil microbial and faunal communities. The knowledge of functional gene sequences for the major microbial transformations enables studies of their presence and diversity in soils. The concomitant evaluation of phylogenetic identification and functional activity of even individual microbial cells in situ is now possible using such as fluorescence in situ hybridization and microautoradiography. Studies about microbial-faunal interactions clarifies the importance of soil organisms for soil processes. Funktionelle Diversitat von Bodenorganismen Dieser Artikel gibt einen uberblick uber neuere Untersuchungen zur funktionellen Diversitat von Mikroorganismen, einigen Vertretern der Bodenmesofauna, sowie der Bodenmakrofauna. Es wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwieweit die Kombination von phanotypischen und genotypischen Untersuchungsmethoden die Erkenntnisse uber die Beziehung von struktureller (phylogenetischer) und funktioneller Diversitat von tierischen und mikrobiellen Lebensgemeinschaften erweitern kann. Die Detailkenntnis der Gensequenzen der zentralen mikrobiellen Transformationsprozesse erlaubt die Untersuchung der Anwesenheit und Diversitat dieses Genpools in Boden. Eine gleichzeitige phylogenetische Identifizierung und Funktionsanalyse auf Einzelzellniveau ist durch den gleichzeitigen Einsatz von Fluoreszenz in situ Hybridisierung mit Gensonden und Mikroautoradiographie moglich. Studien zu Wechselwirkungen von Bodentieren und Bodenmikroorganismen haben die funktionelle Bedeutung von Bodenorganismen geklart.
Ventricular Slices of Adult Mouse Hearts - a new Multicellular In Vitro Model for Electrophysiological Studies

Aim: We established a preparation of adult murine ventricular slices suitable for electrophysiological recordings as a new in vitro model of adult myocardium with preserved in vivo tissue structure. Methods: Short axis slices (thickness: 150 µm) of adult murine ventricles were prepared with a microtome. Sharp glass electrodes were used for measurements of action potentials (APs) at stimulation frequencies of 2 Hz and 10 Hz. Field potential (FP) recordings by means of microelectrode arrays (MEAs) were performed to map excitation spread. Results: APs showed the characteristics of adult murine ventricular APs: (i) a stable resting membrane potential, (ii) a fast upstroke and (iii) a fast phase 1 repolarization. Application of the Na+ channel blocker lidocaine (30 µM) led to a decline of upstroke slope, amplitude and conduction speed. The unspecific K+ channel blocker 4-aminopyridine (5 mM) caused a prolongation of APD50. The excitation spread was homogenous throughout the ventricular wall. Conclusion: Adult murine ventricular slices are electrophysiologically intact and respond physiologically to cardioactive drugs. Thus, they provide a new multicellular in vitro model of adult cardiac tissue suitable for electrophysiological investigations, which in future could be used to study the functional integration of stem cells transplanted in infarcted hearts in vivo.
Physiological temperature during brain slicing enhances the quality of acute slice preparations

We demonstrate that brain dissection and slicing using solutions warmed to near-physiological temperature (~ +34°C), greatly enhance slice quality without affecting intrinsic electrophysiological properties of the neurons. Improved slice quality is seen not only when using young (<1 month), but also mature (>2.5 month) mice. This allows easy in vitro patch-clamp experimentation using adult deep cerebellar nuclear slices, which until now have been considered very difficult. As proof of the concept, we compare intrinsic properties of cerebellar nuclear neurons in juvenile (<1 month) and adult (up to 7 months) mice, and confirm that no significant developmental changes occur after the fourth postnatal week. The enhanced quality of brain slices from old animals facilitates experimentation on age-related disorders as well as optogenetic studies requiring long transfection periods.
Numerical simulation for milling processes of thin wall structures

In the aerospace industry, the manufacturing of structures as one monolithic piece is very common. At the same time, thin walled sections are becoming more wide spread due to weight requirements, environmental concerns and the general demand for higher efficiency. These thin walled sections are easily found within the aircraft wings, fuselage and engines. The machining of these sections is one of the most complex manufacturing processes in the aerospace industry, due to its low stiffness and it is investigated in this thesis. In this thesis, an approach to predicting both the average and instantaneous cutting force coefficients required in force models, using a Finite Element Method (FEM) based on an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation (ALE) is presented. Due to the inherent flexibility of both the cutter and the workpiece, the milling process is naturally accompanied by both dynamic and static vibrations. In order to investigate the dynamic vibrations, the dynamic parameters of both the cutter and the workpiece are required. A novel numerical and experimental investigation has been carried out in this thesis for the prediction of thin walled structure’s damping parameters. A newly discovered approach to predicting the structural damping parameters is proposed and its applications in thin-wall machining is presented. An FEM and Fourier transform (FT) approach is presented, to obtain the frequency response function (FRF) required for the prediction of chatter vibration free cutting conditions. A more accurate stability model that considers the effects of higher harmonics from highly intermittent milling process, the nonlinearity of the cutting force coefficients and axial immersion angle along the axial depth of cut is developed. A numerical approach to obtaining a converged solution to the stability model is presented. A method that uses the FEM and the FT approach and the improved stability model, whilst considering the nonlinearities of the thinwall dynamics in predicted stable region is also presented.
Somatosensory Contribution to the Initial Stages of Human Motor Learning

The early stages of motor skill acquisition are often marked by uncertainty about the sensory and motor goals of the task, as is the case in learning to speak or learning the feel of a good tennis serve. Here we present an experimental model of this early learning process, in which targets are acquired by exploration and reinforcement rather than sensory error. We use this model to investigate the relative contribution of motor and sensory factors to human motor learning. Participants make active reaching movements or matched passive movements to an unseen target using a robot arm. We find that learning through passive movements paired with reinforcement is comparable with learning associated with active movement, both in terms of magnitude and durability, with improvements due to training still observable at a 1 week retest. Motor learning is also accompanied by changes in somatosensory perceptual acuity. No stable changes in motor performance are observed for participants that train, actively or passively, in the absence of reinforcement, or for participants who are given explicit information about target position in the absence of somatosensory experience. These findings indicate that the somatosensory system dominates learning in the early stages of motor skill acquisition. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The research focuses on the initial stages of human motor learning, introducing a new experimental model that closely approximates the key features of motor learning outside of the laboratory. The finding indicates that it is the somatosensory system rather than the motor system that dominates learning in the early stages of motor skill acquisition. This is important given that most of our computational models of motor learning are based on the idea that learning is motoric in origin. This is also a valuable finding for rehabilitation of patients with limited mobility as it shows that reinforcement in conjunction with passive movement results in benefits to motor learning that are as great as those observed for active movement training.
Prevalence of Neoplastic Diseases in Pet Birds Referred for Surgical Procedures

Neoplastic disease is common in pet birds, particularly in psittacines, and treatment should be primarily aimed at tumor eradication. Nineteen cases of pet birds submitted to diagnostic and/or therapeutic surgical procedures due to neoplastic disease characterized by the presence of visible masses were retrospectively analyzed; affected species, types of neoplasms and respective locations, and outcomes of surgical procedures were determined. All birds undergoing surgery belonged to the order Psittaciformes; the Blue-fronted parrot (Amazona aestiva) was the prevalent species. Lipoma was the most frequent neoplasm in the sample studied. Most neoplasms affected the integumentary system, particularly the pericloacal area. Tumor resection was the most common surgical procedure performed, with high resolution and low recurrence rates.
Cisplatin and Aminoglycoside Antibiotics: Hearing Loss and Its Prevention

This review introduces the pathology of aminoglycoside antibiotic and the cisplatin chemotherapy classes of drugs, discusses oxidative stress in the inner ear as a primary trigger for cell damage, and delineates the ensuing cell death pathways. Among potentially ototoxic (damaging the inner ear) therapeutics, the platinum‐based anticancer drugs and the aminoglycoside antibiotics are of critical clinical importance. Both drugs cause sensorineural hearing loss in patients, a side effect that can be reproduced in experimental animals. Hearing loss is reflected primarily in damage to outer hair cells, beginning in the basal turn of the cochlea. In addition, aminoglycosides might affect the vestibular system while cisplatin seems to have a much lower likelihood to do so. Finally, based on an understanding the mechanisms of ototoxicity pharmaceutical ways of protection of the cochlea are presented. Anat Rec, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Planning Argumentative Texts

This paper presents PROVERB a text planner for argumentative texts. PROVERB's main feature is that it combines global hierarchical planning and unplanned organization of text with respect to local derivation relations in a complementary way. The former splits the task of presenting a particular proof into subtasks of presenting subproofs. The latter simulates how the next intermediate conclusion to be presented is chosen under the guidance of the local focus.
Dynamic Modelling and Identification of Precipitation Reactions in Full-Scale WWTP

Current process models used across the wastewater industry have inherent limitations due to limited description of physicochemical processes such as precipitation. As part of the overall effort towards more general and robust physicochemical models applicable to the broad range of problems, this paper evaluates plant-wide modelling of precipitation reactions using a generic approach integrated within activated sludge and anaerobic models. Preliminary results of anaerobic digester sludge in batch system suggest that the model is able to simulate the dynamics of precipitation reactions. Kinetic rate coefficients, identified by mathematical optimization, were 4.65( ± 0.74) hrs - and 2.98( ± 0.48) hrs - for struvite and amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP), respectively. The joint parameter confidence regions found were highly nonlinear and asymmetric, indicating that the model was more tolerant to a fast kinetic coefficient. Nonlinearity of the confidence regions also indicates that nonlinear and iterative techniques for parameter identification are required in estimating real parameter uncertainty. Additional experimental results and model analysis in full-scale WWTP will be presented in the full paper.
Significance of indeterminate third-generation hepatitis C virus recombinant immunoblot assay

Indeterminate hepatitis C virus (HCV) third-generation recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA3.0; Ortho Diagnostic Systems) patterns were arbitrarily defined by the manufacturer as the detection of only one antibody out of the four that were sought, namely, c100 (NS4 encoded), c22 (core encoded), c33c (NS3 encoded), and NS5 (NS5 encoded). The aims of the present study were (i) to determine the prevalence of indeterminate RIBA3.0 patterns in patients consecutively tested for anti-HCV antibodies in a university hospital; (ii) to evaluate the significance of these patterns in terms of viral replication, liver disease, and risk factors for HCV; and (iii) to get an insight into the mechanism underlying this peculiar immune response. Among 3,074 serum samples consecutively tested for anti-HCV antibodies, 588 were found to be positive by screening assays. Fifty-nine of them (10%) were RIBA3.0 indeterminate and were compared with 59 RIBA3.0-positive ones. Thirty-one RIBA3.0-indeterminate and 53 RIBA3.0-positive serum samples were HCV RNA positive by PCR (53 versus 90%; P < 10(-6). RIBA3.0-indeterminate and RIBA-3.0-positive patients with positive PCR results were not significantly different for the prevalence of risk factors for HCV infection and elevated serum alanine aminotransferase activities. Immunosuppression, attributable to coexisting human immunodeficiency virus infection, organ transplantation, or the administration of immunosuppressive drugs, was significantly more frequent in PCR-positive, RIBA3.0-indeterminate patients than in PCR-negative, RIBA3.0 indeterminate patients (P < 0.001) and PCR-positive patients with a positive RIBA3.0 result (P < 0.01). The distribution of HCV genotypes did not differ significantly between HCV RNA-positive patients with indeterminate or positive RIBA3.0 results. In conclusion, the prevalence of indeterminate RIBA3.0 patterns in virology laboratories is about 10%; in about half of these patients HCV replication is detected by PCR; the main factor responsible for indeterminate RIBA3.0 patterns could be immunosuppression, whereas HCV genotypes do not seem to play major role.
Robust multi-class boosting

Boosting approaches are based on the idea that high-quality learning algorithms can be formed by repeated use of a “weak-learner”, which is required to perform only slightly better than random guessing. It is known that Boosting can lead to drastic improvements compared to the individual weak-learner. For two-class problems it has been shown that the original Boosting algorithm, called AdaBoost, is quite unaffected by overﬁtting. However, for the case of noisy data, it is also understood that AdaBoost can be improved considerably by introducing some regularization technique. In speech-related problems one often considers multi-class problems and Boosting formulations have been used successfully to solve them. I review existing multi-class boosting algorithms, which have been much less analyzed and explored than the two-class pendants. In this work I extend these methods to derive new boosting algorithms which are more robust against outliers and noise in the data and are able to exploit prior knowledge about relationships between the classes.
Optimal Corporate Leniency Programs

This study characterizes the corporate leniency policy that minimizes the frequency with which collusion occurs. Though it can be optimal to provide only partial leniency, plausible sufficient conditions are provided whereby the antitrust authority should waive all penalties for the first firm to come forward. It is also shown that restrictions should be placed on when amnesty is awarded, though it can be optimal to award amnesty even when the antitrust authority is very likely to win the case without insider testimony.
LRRC6 Mutation Causes Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia with Dynein Arm Defects

Despite recent progress in defining the ciliome, the genetic basis for many cases of primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) remains elusive. We evaluated five children from two unrelated, consanguineous Palestinian families who had PCD with typical clinical features, reduced nasal nitric oxide concentrations, and absent dynein arms. Linkage analyses revealed a single common homozygous region on chromosome 8 and one candidate was conserved in organisms with motile cilia. Sequencing revealed a single novel mutation in LRRC6 (Leucine-rich repeat containing protein 6) that fit the model of autosomal recessive genetic transmission, leading to a change of a highly conserved amino acid from aspartic acid to histidine (Asp146His). LRRC6 was localized to the cytoplasm and was up-regulated during ciliogenesis in human airway epithelial cells in a Foxj1-dependent fashion. Nasal epithelial cells isolated from affected individuals and shRNA-mediated silencing in human airway epithelial cells, showed reduced LRRC6 expression, absent dynein arms, and slowed cilia beat frequency. Dynein arm proteins were either absent or mislocalized to the cytoplasm in airway epithelial cells from a primary ciliary dyskinesia subject. These findings suggest that LRRC6 plays a role in dynein arm assembly or trafficking and when mutated leads to primary ciliary dyskinesia with laterality defects.