Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sensor location for fault accommodation problem

The problem of sensor location for fault accommodation problem in nonlinear dynamic systems is considered. Solution of the problem is related to constructing the control law which provides full decoupling with respect to fault effects. The logic-dynamic approach is used to solve the problem. The main features of this approach are: it involves known linear methods that results in possibility to solve the fault accommodation problem by existing programming systems without using the symbolic software and it can be applied both to discrete-time and continuous-time systems. Existing conditions are formulated and calculating relations are given for the control law. Theoretical results are illustrated by example.
Predictors of mortality in geriatric trauma patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND The rate of mortality and factors predicting worst outcomes in the geriatric population presenting with trauma are not well established. This study aimed to examine mortality rates in severe and extremely severe injured individuals 65 years or older and to identify the predictors of mortality based on available evidence in the literature. METHODS We performed a systematic literature search on studies reporting mortality and severity of injury in geriatric trauma patients using MEDLINE, PubMed, and Web of Science. RESULTS An overall mortality rate of 14.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 9.8–21.7%) in geriatric trauma patients was observed. Increasing age and severity of injury were found to be associated with higher mortality rates in this patient population. Combined odds of dying in those older than 74 years was 1.67 (95% CI, 1.34–2.08) compared with the elderly population aged 65 years to 74 years. However, the odds of dying in patients 85 years and older compared with those of 75 years to 84 years was not different (odds ratio, 1.23; 95% CI, 0.99–1.52). A pooled mortality rate of 26.5% (95% CI, 23.4–29.8%) was observed in the severely injured (Injury Severity Score [ISS] ≥ 16) geriatric trauma patients. Compared with those with mild or moderate injury, the odds of mortality in severe and extremely severe injuries were 9.5 (95% CI, 6.3–14.5) and 52.3 (95% CI, 32.0–85.5; p ⩽ 0.0001), respectively. Low systolic blood pressure had a pooled odds of 2.16 (95% CI, 1.59–2.94) for mortality. CONCLUSION Overall mortality rate among the geriatric population presenting with trauma is higher than among the adult trauma population. Patients older than 74 years experiencing traumatic injuries are at a higher risk for mortality than the younger geriatric group. However, the trauma-related mortality sustains the same rate after the age of 74 years without any further increase. Moreover, severe and extremely severe injuries and low systolic blood pressure at the presentation among geriatric trauma patients are significant risk factors for mortality. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Systematic review and meta-analysis, level IV.
[Effect of erythropoietin on activities of antioxidant enzymes in the brain tissue of aged rats].

OBJECTIVE To study the effect of erythropoietin (EPO) on the activities of antioxidant enzymes, namely catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in the brain tissues of aged rats. METHODS Thirty SD rats were randomly divided into normal control, aging model, and recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) treatment groups (n=10). Morris water maze was used to compare the behavioral indexes. The rats were then sacrificed to observe Nissl bodies in the hippocampal neurons with Nissl staining and test the activities of CAT and GSH-Px in the brain tissues. RESULTS Compared with the control group, the aging rats showed significantly deteriorated learning and memory abilities (P<0.05), which were improved obviously by rhEPO treatment (P<0.05). The number of Nissl bodies in the neurons was reduced in the aging rats compared with that in the control group, and rhEPO treatment increased the number of Nissle bodies but failed to restore the control level. The aging rats also showed significantly lowered activities of CAT and GSH-Px in the brain tissue (P<0.05), which were increased significantly after rhEPO treatment (P<0.05). CONCLUSION EPO can enhance the activities of the antioxidant enzymes in the brain tissues of aged rats to increase the antioxidant capacity and produces an anti-aging effect.
The ethics of impact factors.

It’s something we borrowed from you science chaps on earth. Oh, we used to do it the hard way: send a fledging angel down to check on your deeds, look at how your life affected your friends and family, consider your intentions versus your actions. All that sort of thing. It was tedious and required huge numbers of new angels, who have become somewhat scarce since free-market capitalism became all the rage down there. Then we noticed that you scientists never bothered to do anything like that. If you had to evaluate someone, all you did was look at this number called the impact factor. So we did the same thing. Now when anyone comes here, all we do is look up their number.
Efficacy of limb cooling on the salvage of peripheral nerve from ischemic fiber degeneration

Since peripheral nerve has a large ischemic safety factor, hypothermia, by reducing metabolic demands, it is potentially an efficacious technique to rescue nerve from ischemic fiber degeneration (IFD). We therefore evaluated the influence of temperature on the severity of IFD resulting from a standard ischemic stress. Ischemia to the left sciatic nerve in the rat was produced by embolization of 2 × 106 microspheres (14 μm) into its supplying arteries. The limb was embolized at three temperatures, 37°C, 32°C, and 28°C and was maintained at each temperature for an additional 4 h. End points, evaluated 7 days after embolization, for the embolized limb were: (1) behavioral scores, 0–11 in increasing limb function; (2) compound nerve action potential of sciatic‐tibial nerve; (3) sciatic nerve blood flow (NBF, in mL/100 g/min); and (4) histologic grade, expressed as percentage of fibers undergoing IFD (0 = < 5% 1 = 5–25% 2 = 26–50% 3 = 51–75% 4 = >75%). NBF was reduced in all groups, varying with temperature, and all indices of nerve structure and function were significantly improved with hypothermia. We conclude that hypothermia, easily achievable in a limb nerve, is highly efficacious in the rescue of nerve from IFD. These findings are of clinical relevance. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Can Arteriography Serve a Diagnostic Purpose in Plaque Type VI by AHA Identification in Patients with Internal Carotid Artery Stenosis ?

Abstract Subtraction angiography is an invasive diagnostic method, which for a long time was a gold standard in carotid artery and intra-cranial vessel imaging. The aim of this research is to evaluate angiographic imaging in predicting atherosclerotic plaque type VI by AHA morphology and to assess its significance in establishing patients’ suitability for a particular operative method. Secondarily, we assessed atherosclerotic lesions in common carotid artery bifurcation. In the paper we analyzed 158 bilateral angiograms of common and internal carotid arteries in extra-and intra-cranial locations. The material consisted of patients hospitalized in the Vascular Surgery Ward of Memorial Copernicus Hospital in Lodz during 2002–2004 who underwent angiography. We concluded that: 1. In symptomatic patients irregular plaque images in subtraction angiography is correlated with plaque type VI by AHA morphology. 2. Angiography is not a sufficient method for selection of the appropriate operative treatment due to its low sensitivity and specificity in plaque morphology imaging. 3. Plaque type VI by AHA is characteristic even for the second group of carotid bifurcation stenosis (by NASCET) and it definitely dominates in group III (by NASCET).
Debate on Mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an old age concept yet its flame of debate has not been put off. CSR is moving from just a company discretionary activity to a national demand backed by law. This mandatory requirement sparkle a new trend of arguments on CSR. This paper has joined this new course of CSR debate by raising some unconventional justifications on making CSR mandatory. To add to the existing argument of CSR, the paper brings out issues of triple taxation, killing of competitive spirit, multiplier effect, and deviation from natural law of donation among others. Although the paper criticize mandatory CSR practices, it recognise the benefit of CSR, been it mandatory or voluntary.
Energy-aware dynamic scheduling for NoC-based MPSoCs

Network-on-Chip (NoC) has emerged as a promising architecture which provides efficient interconnections over hundreds of processor cores. However, how to schedule tasks on such large amount of cores according to on-chip dynamic workload while lowering energy consumption is a serious problem. In this paper, the task-related energy consumption on NoC-based Multiprocessor System-on-Chips (MPSoCs) is investigated and an Energy-aware Dynamic Scheduling Algorithm (EDSA) is proposed for periodic tasks, such as tasks in stream applications. Simulation experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm not only achieves significant energy reduction compared to the random algorithm but also benefits the throughput of the system.
Structural characterization of milled wood lignins from different eucalypt species

Abstract The chemical structure of milled-wood lignins from Eucalyptus globulus, E. nitens, E. maidenii, E. grandis, and E. dunnii was investigated. The lignins were characterized by analytical pyrolysis, thioacidolysis, and 2D-NMR that confirmed the predominance of syringyl over guaiacyl units and only showed traces of p-hydroxyphenyl units. E. globulus lignin had the highest syringyl content. The heteronuclear single quantum correlation (HSQC) NMR spectra yielded information about relative abundances of inter-unit linkages in the whole polymer. All the lignins showed a predominance of β-O-4′ ether linkages (66–72% of total side-chains), followed by β-β′ resinol-type linkages (16–19%) and lower amounts of β-5′ phenylcoumaran-type (3–7%) and β-1′ spirodienone-type linkages (1–4%). The analysis of desulfurated thioacidolysis dimers provided additional information on the relative abundances of the various carbon-carbon and diaryl ether bonds, and the type of units (syringyl or guaiacyl) involved in each of the above linkage types. Interestingly, 93–94% of the total β-β′ dimers included two syringyl units indicating that most of the β-β′ substructures identified in the HSQC spectra were of the syringaresinol type. Moreover, three isomers of a major trimeric compound were found which were tentatively identified as arising from a β-β′ syringaresinol substructure attached to a guaiacyl unit through a 4-O-5′ linkage.
Epidemiological Analysis of Sequential Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolates from Chronic Bronchiectasis Patients without Cystic Fibrosis

ABSTRACT PCR fingerprinting was used for the epidemiological investigation of 64 Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates collected from 16 chronic bronchiectasis patients without cystic fibrosis: 56% of the patients harbored one clone, 12.5% carried a single major type with minor variants, and 31.5% carried two clones. Only a minority of the acquisitions of antibiotic resistance was related to the acquisition of exogenous strains. Mucoid and nonmucoid sets of isolates did not display any consistent differences in their patterns. The genetic similarity among the clones ranged from 10 to 69%. Cross-infection or common-source exposure did not appear to have occurred.
Mapping Open Space in an Old-Growth, Secondary-Growth, and Selectively-Logged Tropical Rainforest Using Discrete Return LIDAR

Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) is a valuable tool for mapping vegetation structure in dense forests. Although several LIDAR-derived metrics have been proposed for characterizing vertical forest structure in previous studies, none of these metrics explicitly measure open space, or vertical gaps, under a forest canopy. We develop new LIDAR metrics that characterize vertical gaps within a forest for use in forestry and forest management applications. The proposed metrics are extracted from discrete return LIDAR data acquired over the La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica across three different forest management types (old-growth, secondary-growth, and selectively-logged). A comparison to common LIDAR metrics of vertical vegetation structure revealed that our new metrics provide unique information about the structure of the forest canopy. Maps showing the distribution of vertical gap and complex canopy patches identified from our LIDAR metrics demonstrate that the pattern of open space in tropical rain forests is linked to forest management strategies.
9-Incarceration and Homelessness

This paper provides a synthesis of the emerging literature on the nexus between incarceration and homelessness. The authors explain how the increasing numbers of people leaving carceral institutions face an increased risk for homelessness and, conversely, how persons experiencing homelessness are vulnerable to incarceration. The authors review recent efforts to address reentry issues and review research results on studies of homelessness among prison and jail populations and research on incarceration among people who homeless. After reviewing common barriers to housing for people who have been incarcerated, the authors assess what is known about the effectiveness of services and housing interventions to address these barriers and outline needs for future research.
Study on the Spatial Structure of Tourism Economy in Middle Area of China Based on Social Network Analysis

With the comprehensive economic strength of the Middle Area of China, the tourism economic ties more closely within the region, regional tourism cooperation more in-depth, a higher demand on the regional tourism spatial structure. This paper analyses the tourism economic relations and structure of48 cities in the Middle Area of China, based on related theories of the tourism spatial structure, by the use of the social network analysis, achieves4 conclusions: 1 Spatial tourism economic link degree of the Middle Area of China is low, but tourism economy affiliation levels of the 6 city subgroup are different; 2 tourism integration level of the changsha-zhuzhou-xiangtan city cluster,Wanjiang City Belt and Taiyuan economic circle is higher, but Wuhan city circle low level; 3 accessibility of Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Hefei, Luoyang, Changsha, Jiujiang,Nanchang is good, most close economic link, but spatial tourism economic link network is an imbalance, the core status of Wuhan,Zhengzhou, Hefei, Luoyang, Changsha, Nanchang is high; 4there are 3 subgroups of 1 first center in spatial tourism economy network of the Middle Area of China, link between subgroups and Wuhan city is more closely, and the relationship between subgroups is less, there was a network hierarchical structure. Finally,put forward proposal for spatial structure optimization and "barrier-free" integration in tourism economy of the Middle Area of China.
A Fungicidal Monoclonal Antibody Protects against Murine Invasive Candidiasis

ABSTRACT Mice infected by Candida albicans and treated with monoclonal antibody C7 survived longer than saline-treated animals. A prozone-like effect was observed. The in vitro candidacidal activity of macrophages was strongly enhanced when C. albicans was opsonized by C7 and complete murine serum was present.
A virtual electric machine laboratory for effect of saturation of the asynchronous machine application

Engineering education requires theoretical backgrounds to be supported by practical experience. Traditional laboratory practices are the supplementary parts of an education program which provide students practical skills and prepare them for professional life. However, since the real experiments are not always possible to carry out due to the limitations in equipments, suitable places, and sometimes limited time, alternative teaching means are needed. In this study, virtual application of asynchronous machine in a constant reference frame is given by a practical and functional interface, which can be a supportive tool for electrical engineering education. Asynchronous motor is generally modeled assuming constant parameters and linear inductance in transient analysis. However, many motors are designed for running in saturation region. In this application, magnetic saturation effect is also considered. All controls and variables of virtual application can be observed and saved in real time. An educational approach is adopted here to develop a virtual lab which can be used as a tool for education and demonstrative purposes. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 17: 422–428, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae.20229
Hollow-core photonic crystal fiber refractive index sensor based on modal interference

A refractive index sensor based modal interference in hollow core photonic crystal fiber (HCPCF) is proposed and demonstrated. The sensor is realized by splicing both ends of a HCPCF section to single mode fiber (SMF). At both splicing points, the HCPCF air holes are fully collapsed by the arc discharge. The collapsed regions excite and recombine core and cladding modes which formed modal interference for sensing purpose. The HCPCF sensor is tested in sugar solution and the response is measured from the wavelength shift in the interference spectra. The achieved sensitivity and resolution are 36.184 nm/RIU and 5.53-10-4 RIU, respectively, in refractive index range between 1.3330 and 1.3775. Result also shows that the sensor has a small temperature sensitivity of 19 pm/°C in the range of 35.5°C to 60.5 °C. The propos sensor potentially can be applied in biomedical, biological and chemical applications.
Using force-feedback devices in educational settings: a short review

In this short review, we aim at providing an update about recent research on force-feedback devices in educational settings, with a particular focus on primary school teaching. This review describes haptic devices and education virtual environments before entering into the details of domain-specific applications of this technology in schools. Currently, the number of studies that investigated the potential of haptic devices in educational settings is limited, in particular for primary schools. The absence of longitudinal studies makes it difficult to reach any strong conclusion about the learning outcomes of this technology. Additional research is needed about how this technology might contribute to teach specific concepts at different ages. In particular, we point out the need to do more research on how to combine haptic feedback with visual and audio information, which seems important both on the basis of the results of previous studies and on recent research in neuroscience demonstrating the importance of multi-modal integration in the cognitive development of children. Demonstrating the potential benefit of haptic devices in a learning environment is also important to create a demand for this technology which might lead to the commercialization of haptic devices with an affordable price for schools.
Sexual assault in childhood: Risk HIV and AIDS behaviours in adulthood

Abstract This study examined the hypothesis that sexual assault in childhood is a risk factor in HIV and AIDS prevention and control in adulthood. It comprised 40 participants who were survivors of child sexual abuse and 40 participants who were not sexually abused. The sample had 20 sexually abused men, 20 non sexually abused men, 20 sexually abused women and 20 non sexually abused women. The group that had men and women who had a history of sexual assault reported higher HIV and AIDS risk behaviours than the non-abused comparison group. The survivors of sexual assault also had higher levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicide ideation and external locus of control. They reported low self-esteem. This unhealthy psychological functioning was found to be a risk factor in HIV and AIDS prevention and control. Implications for future research are discussed.
The role of epigenetics in colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) results from a stepwise accumulation of genetic and epigenetic alterations that transform the normal colonic epithelium into cancer. DNA methylation represents one of the most studied epigenetic marks in CRC, and three common epigenotypes have been identified characterized by high, intermediate and low methylation profiles, respectively. Combining DNA methylation data with gene mutations and cytogenetic alterations occurring in CRC is nowadays allowing the characterization of different CRC subtypes, but the crosstalk between DNA methylation and other epigenetic mechanisms, such as histone tail modifications and the deregulated expression of non-coding RNAs is not yet clearly defined. Epigenetic biomarkers are increasingly recognized as promising diagnostic and prognostic tools in CRC, and the potential of therapeutic applications aimed at targeting the epigenome is under investigation.
Relationship between sleep-disordered breathing and lifestyle-related illnesses in subjects who have undergone health-screening.

OBJECTIVE Simplified sleep polysomnography was performed in 207 adult men to examine the relationship between the frequency of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and lifestyle-related illness. METHODS Each subject was checked for SDB using a simplified sleep polysomnograph (Auto-Set Portable; Teijin Limited, Tokyo, Japan). Apnea and hypopnea were detected with a nasal cannula type airflow sensor. Hypoxemia was checked with a percutaneous oxygen saturation (SpO2) monitor. We analyzed the relationships between SDB and body mass index (BMI) and hypertension, hyperlipidemia, liver dysfunction, fatty liver, and abnormal glucose metabolism. RESULTS Fifty-nine subjects (29%) showed SDB with apnea hypopnea index (AHI) over 15 times/h. The frequency of obesity (BMI > or = 25), hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, fasting blood glucose level, and HbA1c were significantly higher in patients with SDB than in normal individuals (AHI < 5 times/h). The frequencies of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and abnormal glucose metabolism were compared between the obesity-free normal AHI group and the SDB group, and only that of hypertension was significantly different between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS The present study revealed a high frequency of SDB among Japanese individuals. The results also suggest that as SDB becomes severe, it becomes more closely linked to the onset of lifestyle-related illnesses, such as hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and abnormal glucose metabolism.