Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transparent Conducting Polymer/Nitride Semiconductor Heterojunction Solar Cells

Energy supplies that depend on fossil fuels evoke significant concern about the future depletion of those resources and the emission of carbon dioxide and sulfidizing gas, which are believed to cause environmental problems including climate change and acid precipitation (Solomon et al., 2007). Solar cells, which convert sunlight directly to electric power, are one of the most promising devices for a clean and enduring energy source. The standard energy-weighted power density of sunlight, which is defined as air mass 1.5, is 1kW/m2 under clear and sunny weather conditions (Myers et al., 2000). The maximum available amount of sunlight is usually lower than the value described above due to the weather and the total hours of sunlight in the region. Thus, the first important aim for developing a solar cell is to derive the highest possible photovoltaic conversion efficiency from the utilized materials and structure. When a solar cell with a single bandgap, Eg, is exposed to the solar spectrum, a photon with less energy than Eg does not contribute to the cell output. Therefore, a multilayer structure comprising a variety of bandgaps is effective for the collection of photons in a wide range of the solar spectrum. The current (2010) best research-cell efficiencies of typical solar cells are as follows (Green, 2010): crystalline Si (25.0%), multicrystalline Si (20.4%), crystalline GaAs (26.4%), CuInGaSe (19.4%), CdTe (16.7%), amorphous Si (10.1%), dye-sensitized polymers (10.4%), and organic polymers (5.15%). In addition to these, there have been a number of studies focused on developing “third-generation photovoltaics” with ultra-high conversion efficiencies at a low cost (Green, 2001). More recently, after the discovery of the wide band gap range of 0.65–3.4 eV in InxGa1-x N, this material is considered to be one of the most promising candidates for third-generation photovoltaic cells.
A 3D Cohesive Element Model for Fracture Behavior Analysis of Ceramic Tool Materials Microstructure

A 3D finite element polycrystalline microstructure model of ceramic tool materials is presented. Quasi-static crack propagation is modeled using the cohesive finite element method (CFEM) and the microstructure is represented by 3D Voronoi tessellation. The influences of cohesive parameters, the ratios of maximum traction of grain boundary to maximum traction of grain on the crack patterns of Al2O3 have been discussed. This study has demonstrated the capability of modeling 3D crack propagation of ceramic microstructure with CFEM and Voronoi tessellation model. It is found that the fracture mode is changed from intergranular to transgranular as the maximum traction of grain boundary is increased.
Highly Accurate Closed-Form Approximations to the Sum of α-μVariates and Applications

Sums of fading envelopes occur in several wireless communications applications, such as equal-gain combining, signal detection, outage probability, intersymbol interference, etc. The exact evaluation of the sum statistics is known to be very intricate. One of the purposes of this Letter is to provide highly accurate closed-form approximations to the probability density function and cumulative distribution function of the sum of independent identically distributed (i.i.d.) alpha-mu (generalized gamma) variates. Based on and as an extension of such an approach, simple precise approximations for the performance metrics of equal-gain combining and maximal-ratio combining receivers operating on i.i. d. alpha-mu fading channels are proposed. Samples examples are given to illustrate that, for practical purposes, exact and approximate solutions are indistinguishable from each other.
Insulin at normal physiological levels does not prolong QTc interval in thorough QT studies performed in healthy volunteers

Food is known to shorten the QTc (QTcI and QTcF) interval and has been proposed as a non‐pharmacological method of confirming assay sensitivity in thorough QT (TQT) studies and early phase studies in medicines research. Intake of food leads to a rise in insulin levels together with the release of C‐peptide in equimolar amounts. However, it has been reported that euglycaemic hyperinsulinemia can prolong the QTc interval, whilst C‐peptide has been reported to shorten the QTc interval. Currently there is limited information on the effects of insulin and C‐peptide on the electrocardiogram (ECG). This study was performed to assess the effect of insulin, glucose and C‐peptide on the QTc interval under the rigorous conditions of a TQT study.
Dexamethasone and 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 Reduce Oxidative Stress-Related DNA Damage in Differentiating Osteoblasts

The process of osteoblast differentiation is regulated by several factors, including RUNX2. Recent reports suggest an involvement of RUNX2 in DNA damage response (DDR), which is important due to association of differentiation with oxidative stress. In the present work we explore the influence of two RUNX2 modifiers, dexamethasone (DEX) and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25-D3), in DDR in differentiating MC3T3-E1 preosteoblasts challenged by oxidative stress. The process of differentiation was associated with reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBH) reduced the rate of differentiation. The activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), a marker of the process of osteoblasts differentiation, increased in a time-dependent manner and TBH further increased this activity. This may indicate that additional oxidative stress, induced by TBH, may accelerate the differentiation process. The cells displayed changes in the sensitivity to TBH in the course of differentiation. DEX increased ALP activity, but 1,25-D3 had no effect on it. These results suggest that DEX might stimulate the process of preosteoblasts differentiation. Finally, we observed a protective effect of DEX and 1,25-D3 against DNA damage induced by TBH, except the day 24 of differentiation, when DEX increased the extent of TBH-induced DNA damage. We conclude that oxidative stress is associated with osteoblasts differentiation and induce DDR, which may be modulated by RUNX2-modifiers, DEX and 1,25-D3.
Sepsis: A Frequent, Life‐Threatening Syndrome

Innovative treatments have enhanced the understanding of the pathophysiology of sepsis. An understanding of the underlying nature of the disorder is necessary to develop new therapies and determine their roles in treating patients with sepsis. By studying and determining the interactions among the inflammatory, coagulation, and fibrinolytic pathways, investigators have discovered exciting new areas of research into the mechanisms of tissue injury in sepsis.
A Hybrid Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm for Solving the Terminal Assignment Problem

The past two decades have witnessed tremendous research activities in optimization methods for communication networks. One important problem in communication networks is the Terminal Assignment Problem. This problem involves determining minimum cost links to form a network by connecting a collection of terminals to a collection of concentrators. In this paper, we propose a Hybrid Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm to solve the Terminal Assignment Problem. We compare our results with the results obtained by the standard Genetic Algorithm, the Tabu Search Algorithm and the Hybrid Differential Evolution Algorithm, used in literature.
Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis.

Until recently Entamoeba histolytica has been regarded as the only important amoeba pathogenic to man, though several other species can be parasitic without causing symptoms. ' There are many species offree-living amoebae, which generally inhabit the soil or stagnant water and flourish in warm climates. C. G. Culbertson and colleagues2 found that species in one genus, Hartmanella, caused fatal lesions of the brain and spinal cord in laboratory animals and later confirmed3 the pathogenicity of this organism to mammals.
Learning phase-invariant dictionaries

In this paper, we present a novel algorithm to learn phase-invariant dictionaries, which can be used to efficiently approximate a variety of signals, such as audio signals or images. Our approach relies on finding a small number of generating atoms that can be used-along with their phase-shifts-to sparsely approximate a given signal. Our method is inspired by the K-SVD algorithm, but imposes an extra constraint that the dictionaries we learn are phase-invariant. We show that the learned dictionaries achieve competitive approximation performance compared to that of state-of-the-art methods for audio signals and images, while substantially reducing the storage requirements and computational complexity.
Simple and efficient visual gaze estimation

In this paper we combine a state of the art eye center locator and a new eye corner locator into a system which estimates the visual gaze of a user in a controlled environment (e.g. sitting in front of a screen). In order to reduce to a minimum the computational costs, the eye corner locator is built upon the same technology of the eye center locator, tweaked for the specific task. If high mapping precision is not a priority of the application, we claim that the system can achieve acceptable accuracy without the requirements of additional dedicated hardware. We believe that this could bring new gaze based methodologies for human-computer interactions into the mainstream.
A Simple Method to Build Oversampled Filter Banks and Tight Frames

This paper presents conditions under which the sampling lattice for a filter bank can be replaced without loss of perfect reconstruction. This is the generalization of common knowledge that removing up/downsampling will not lose perfect reconstruction. The results provide a simple way of building over- sampled filter banks. If the original filter banks are orthogonal, these oversampled banks construct tight frames of l2(Z n) when iterated. As an example, a quincunx lattice is used to replace the rectangular one of the standard wavelet transform. This replacement leads to a tight frame that has a higher sampling in both time and frequency. The frame transform is nearly shift invariant and has intermediate scales. An application of the transform to image fusion is also presented.
Scheduling in Bandwidth Constrained Tree Networks

In this paper we introduce a new network scheduling model. Here jobs need to be sent via routers on a tree to machines to be scheduled, and the communication is constrained by network bandwidth. The scheduler coordinates network communication and job machine scheduling. This type of scheduler is highly desirable in practice; yet few works have considered combing networking with job processing. We consider the popular objective of total flow time in the online setting. We give a (1+ε)-speed O(1/ε7)-competitive algorithm when all routers are identical and all machines are identical for any fixed eps >0. Then we go on to show a (2+ε)-speed O(1/ε7)-competitive algorithm when the routers are identical and the machines are unrelated. To show these results we introduce an interesting combination of potential function and dual fitting techniques as well as a reduction of general tree scheduling to a special case of trees.
2017 National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support

This article was copublished in Diabetes Care 2017;40:1409–1419 and The Diabetes Educator 2017;43:449–464 and is reprinted with permission. The previous version of this article, also copublished in Diabetes Care and The Diabetes Educator, can be found at Diabetes Care 2012;35:2393–2401 (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc12-1707).
Gamma knife surgery in management of secretory pituitary adenoma preliminary evaluation of role, efficacy and safety

Historically the treatment armamentarium for secretory pituitary adenomas included neurosurgery, medical management, fractionated radiotherapy and recently gamma knife surgery (GKS), the goal of this study is to evaluate the efficacy, safety and role of gamma knife surgery for treatment of secretory pituitary adenomas regarding hormonal and adenoma size control, between mid of 2005 and 2012 a retrospective analysis of 54 consecutive patients with secretory pituitary adenomas underwent GKS at the International Medical Center (IMC) Cairo-Egypt, 10 patients with adrenocorticotrophic hormone secreting adenoma, 24 prolactin secreting adenoma and 20 with growth hormone secreting adenoma, in 25 patients GKS was the secondary to a prior surgery with failure of hormonal control even in addition of medical treatment, in the other 29 the secretory pituitary adenomas not controlled with medical treatment alone, the median follow up period was 28 months(12-84 months), achieving hormonal control was either normalization or marked decline of abnormal hormone level >50%, radiological tumour size control was either tumour size stabilization or reduction, among the 54 patients 31 had microadenoma of 1cc volume or less, over all 34 patients (63%) had hormonal control and 51 patients (94%) had tumor size control after GKS, there was a direct correlation between tumor size, prescription radiation dose and post-gamma knife hormonal and size control, 29 out of the treated 31 microadenomas cases showed both hormonal and size control, inconclusions gamma knife surgery is safe and effective treatment for secretory pituitary adenomas failed to respond to medical treatment alone or with postsurgical residual or recurrence especially microadenomas.
Improving the Sensitivity of Electron Beam Microanalytical Techniques by Enhanced X-ray Spectrometry: X-ray Microcalorimetry, Silicon Drift Detector Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry, and Polycapillary X-ray Optics

The microcalorimeter energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer, the silicon drift detector (SDD), and polycapillary x-ray optics are recent developments that have significantly advanced analytical x-ray spectrometry for electron beam instruments. The microcalorimeter EDS is capable of high resolution operation (∼ 5 eV wide peaks) over a wide range of photon energies (250 eV ∼ 10 keV). The microcalorimeter EDS can be successfully applied to peak interference problems that are not accessible with the conventional semiconductor EDS such as TiN and BaTiO3. Polycapillary x-ray optics can augment the collection angle of the microcalorimeter EDS to increase its sensitivity. The SDD is capable of extremely high count rates, up to 1 MHz, and is especially useful for high speed x-ray mapping. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2003. 130]
A Patient’s Journey : Xeroderma pigmentosum

My son Alex was diagnosed with xeroderma pigmentosum at the age of 4 years. He was born in Germany and lived there for the first two years of his life. Before the diagnosis, he had had a series of severe sunburns, the first at the age of 7 weeks through a car window, and then the worst when he was 11 months old on a winter holiday in Austria. After this burn Alex was referred to a dermatologist, who dismissed it as “just sunburn” and said, “You mothers just don’t know what the sun can do. ” Alex is a mixed race child, the second of two children. I had noticed that his cheeks turned red very quickly whenever he was exposed to the sun, so I made sure he always wore a factor 30 sunscreen. Yet he still managed to get burnt, usually in about 15 minutes. His sister did not burn in the same circumstances, so I knew there was something wrong. I contacted our general practitioner in the United Kingdom, who suggested that Alex might have some kind of sun allergy and advised us to apply sunscreen, and to make sure he was always well covered up and wore a hat whenever possible. With this advice, we managed to avoid any burns until Alex was 3 years old, when he received another very severe sunburn. At this point he was again referred to a dermatologist, who, when I showed him photographs of the previous burns, understood my concerns and started his investigations. The first series of tests Alex had were to detect which wavelengths of light he was sensitive to. The tests showed that he was most sensitive to ultraviolet A light and then ultraviolet B. Then a series of blood tests showed that he didn’t have erythropoietic protoporphyria. As all other avenues had been exhausted, Alex then had a biopsy to test for xeroderma pigmentosum. His condition was diagnosed nine months after his first visit to the dermatologist. During that time we protected Alex from the sun as best as we could. On diagnosis we really did not know what we could do. No known cure existed and there was no literature. We were told that unless Alex was kept indoors he was unlikely to reach the age of 30. We mourned the loss of our son’s future and then said, “That’s it. We are going to be more positive and find ways to allow Alex to live as near a normal life as possible. ”
miRGator: an integrated system for functional annotation of microRNAs

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) constitute an important class of regulators that are involved in various cellular and disease processes. However, the functional significance of each miRNA is mostly unknown due to the difficulty in identifying target genes and the lack of genome-wide expression data combining miRNAs, mRNAs and proteins. We introduce a novel database, miRGator, that integrates the target prediction, functional analysis, gene expression data and genome annotation. MiRNA function is inferred from the list of target genes predicted by miRanda, PicTar and TargetScanS programs. Statistical enrichment test of target genes in each term is performed for gene ontology, pathway and disease annotations. Associated terms may provide valuable insights for the function of each miRNA. For the expression analysis, miRGator integrates public expression data of miRNA with those of mRNA and protein. Expression correlation between miRNA and target mRNA/proteins is evaluated and their expression patterns can be readily compared. Our web implementation supports diverse query types including miRNA name, gene symbol, gene ontology, pathway and disease terms. Interfaces for exploring common targets or regulatory miRNAs and for profiling compendium expression data have been developed as well. Currently, miRGator, available at: http://genome.ewha. ac.kr/miRGator/, supports the human and mouse genomes.
Loss of Aire-dependent thymic expression of a peripheral tissue antigen renders it a target of autoimmunity

Both humans and mice with a mutation in the autoimmune regulator (aire) gene develop multiorgan autoimmune disease. Aire was shown to exert its critical function in medullary epithelial cells of the thymus by promoting ectopic expression of peripheral tissue antigens. It was hypothesized that the widespread autoimmunity of Aire-deficient individuals reflects a lack of tolerance induction to the repertoire of peripheral tissue antigens expressed in the thymus of normal individuals. Here, we substantiate this hypothesis by identifying Mucin 6 as a stomach-specific antigen targeted by autoantibodies in gastritis-prone mice lacking thymic expression of aire and demonstrate that transcription of the Mucin 6 gene in thymic medullary epithelial cells is indeed Aire-dependent.
Cervical cancer in New South Wales women: five‐year survival, 1972 to 1991

Abstract: We analysed five‐year relative survival of 6992 cases of cervical cancer incident between 1972 and 1991 in New South Wales (NSW) women, using data from the population‐based state Cancer Registry. Follow‐up was to 1992. Survival was determined by record linkage to death certificates. Relative survival was derived from absolute survival of cases with expected survival of age‐ and period‐matched NSW women. Proportional hazard regression analysis was used for multivariate analysis. Relative survival at five years improved from 64 per cent in 1972–1976 to 72 per cent in 1987–1991, although the only significant increase occurred between 1972–1976 and 1977–1981 (64 to 70 per cent). Survival was better for the age groups 0–39 years (RR 0.51) and 40–49 years (RR 0.63) and worse for the elderly (>65 years) (RR 1.47) than for the referent group (50–64 years). Excess mortality was much less for those with localised disease (referent group), than for those with regional spread (RR 3.47) or metastatic cancer (RR 10.5) at diagnosis. For the most recent period (1987–1991), relative five‐year survival for localised disease was 82 per cent, for regional spread at diagnosis it was 49 per cent, and for metastatic cancer 21 per cent. When adjusted for confounding, excess mortality was significantly higher for adenocarcinoma (RR 1.16) than for squamous cell carcinoma. Five‐year relative survival for cervical cancer in NSW women for the most recent period is similar to that in South Australia, and both compare favourably with international statistics. The lack of improvement of five‐year survival for cervical cancer over 15 years since 1977–1981 reinforces the importance of prevention through regular screening by cytology.
Uniaxial Extension and Order Development in Flexible Chain Polymers

Abstract It is well known that the highest elastic moduli reported for linear poly-mers are generally much smaller than their theoretical values. This has been shown particularly by Nakamae and coworkers [1]. For a range of poly-mers they have summarized their crystal moduli determined by x-ray dif-fraction as measured in the stiffest direction, parallel to the polymer chain axis. These values on crystals approximate the ultimate polymer moduli; they therefore may be compared with the much lower presently reported values for the conventional structure of these polymers (Fig. 1). This figure shows that most polymers, including those with rigid backbone chains, have tensile moduli far below those of their crystalline lattice in the chain direction. The exceptions are specially drawn ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW PE), which in PE parlance is generally considered to mean molecular weight above one million, and for isotactic polypropyl-ene that also has been drawn to tensile moduli that approac.
Calmness for L-Subsmooth Multifunctions in Banach Spaces

Using variational analysis techniques, we study subsmooth multifunctions in Banach spaces. In terms of the normal cones and coderivatives, we provide some characterizations for such multifunctions to be calm. Sharper results are obtained for Asplund spaces. We also present some exact formulas of the modulus of the calmness. As applications, we provide some error bound results on nonconvex inequalities, which improve and generalize the existing error bound results.
On Limitations to the Achievable Path Following Performance for Linear Multivariable Plants

In this paper, we consider a problem termed ldquopath followingrdquo. This differs from the common problem of reference tracking, in that here we can adjust the speed at which we traverse the reference trajectory. We are interested in ascertaining the degree to which we can track a given trajectory, and in characterizing the class of paths for which we can generate an appropriate temporal specification so that the path can be tracked arbitrarily well in an L 2 sense. We give various bounds on the achievable performance, as well as tight results in special cases. In addition, we give a numerical procedure based on convex optimization for computing the achievable performance. The results demonstrate that there are situations where arbitrarily good L 2 performance may be achieved even though the origin is not in the convex hull of the positive limit set of the path to be followed.