Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shrub Hydropedology: Preferential Water Availability to Deep Soil Layer

The complex interactions between shrub traits, soil structure, and soil water dynamics are not well understood yet. This study investigated rainfall partition by C. microphylla L. , spatial soil water pattern, soil hydraulic conductivity, and soil macropores to ascertain preferential water flow to deep soil layer by shrub. Results indicated that high variability in throughfall existed within individual shrub stand: average coefficient of variation was 0.36 ± 0.13 for shrub and 0.15 ± 0.13 for interspace grass. Throughfall was less at the center of the shrub patch (30–60% of rainfall) than the outward positions at the edges of the canopy (70–90% of rainfall). Soil water responded differently to rainfall, soil depth, and vegetation type and showed high variability within shrub patches and on the slope. Greater and deeper infiltration was observed beneath C. microphylla L. canopy than interspaces grass after rainfall with large amount and high intensity, suggesting that macropore flow dominated in shrub patches. X‐ray CT showed that macroporosity was over six times greater in soil under C. microphylla L. than interspace grass. Soil hydraulic conductivity for shrub at saturation and the pressure heads of −30, −60, and −150 mm were 3, 2, 2.5, and 2 times than those of grass, respectively. Shrub patches had a significant lower bulk density and higher porosity than grass patches at the top 0‐ to 30‐cm depth. Soil hydraulic conductivity was significantly correlated to organic matter content, total N, bulk density, and porosity. This study suggests that rainfall partition by shrub's canopy and subsurface soil macropores induced by root architecture results in preferential water flow into deep soil layer, which might favor competitive advantages for water by shrubs under arid conditions.
BAD transmission and SAD distribution: a new scenario for critical limb ischemia.

BACKGROUND Most of the studies on peripheral artery disease (PAD) focused on above-the-ankle artery disease, while less is known about foot artery disease. We hypothesize a scenario were two different diseases can be present in PAD patients, big artery disease (BAD) and small artery disease (SAD), overlapping at the foot level; the aim of this study is to evaluate their prevalence and their correlation with risk factors and critical limb ischemia (CLI) in a large cohort of patients with symptomatic PAD. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 1915 limbs of 1613 patients (502 females, mean age 72.4±10.8 years) who underwent angiography between September 2009 and November 2013. Age, sex, diabetes, smoke history, high blood pressure, dialysis and BMI were considered as risk factors. Logistic regression was performed to test the association of arterial lesions patterns and CLI, and to evaluate the association between risk factors and lesion localization. RESULTS SAD was present in 414 patients (25.2%). Patients with disease of any of plantar, dorsalis pedis arteries and SAD faced higher risk of CLI (OR=13.25, 95% CI: 1.69-104.16). SAD was associated with diabetes and dialysis (both: OR=4.85; dialysis only: OR=3.60; diabetes only: OR=1.70; none: reference OR; P<0.01), weight (underweight: OR=1.10; normal: reference OR; overweight: OR=0.81; obese: OR=0.60; P=0.03), while women and tobacco smokers were less likely to have SAD (women: OR=0.68; P<0.01; tobacco use: OR=0.54; P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS SAD was strongly and independently associated with CLI, diabetes and dialysis. Thus, SAD should be regarded as a leading actor in CLI.
Types of Online Viral Marketing in Book Industry

Companies need to engage communities into their marketing activities. Community marketing is a strategy to engage an audience in an active, non-intrusive prospect and customer conversation that focus on the needs of existing customers. Nowadays, as the role of social media has been growing in significance, community marketing can be more organized. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter can no longer be seen merely as leisure activities, since they have proved to have played important role in driving large groups of people. The purpose of this paper is to show whether various social media platforms can also be useful in community marketing, considering the great impacts they have in modern society.
A Fault-Tolerant Schema for Clock Synchronization and data aggregation in WSN

Event monitoring and determination is a popular application in WSN. Considering the special circumstance that some nodes of the wireless sensor network are faulty, a fault tolerant schema for data aggregation based on event clustering was proposed. Also, an improved HRTS algorithm named T-HRTS which based on Hierarchy Referencing Clock Synchronization resolving the byzantine general problem will be introduced.
Ultrasound elasticity imaging using Golay code

Ultrasound elasticity imaging is becoming a new diagnostic tool for clinicians to detect lesions or cancers in tissues. In this paper, Golay code is applied to elasticity imaging to improve its quality. Phase-zero algorithm is employed as the displacement estimator, and the amplitude modulation correction location estimate method is used as the location estimator. We compared the performance of Golay code and the conventional short pulse in simulation method. The simulation results demonstrate that Golay code can achieve higher elastographic signal-to-noise ratio (SNRe) than the short pulse in low echo signal-to-noise ratio (eSNR) conditions, because the eSNR gain with Golay code increases the accuracy of the displacement estimates. However, in high eSNR conditions, Golay code performs worse than the short pulse, because the range sidelobe level of Golay code will decrease the SNRe and the performance of Golay code depends mainly on its range sidelobe level in high eSNR conditions. Therefore, the optimal conditions for Goaly code to be used in elasticity imaging are the low eSNR, great depth or high attenuation conditions.
Phase Transitions for Scale-Free SAT Formulas

Recently, a number of non-uniform random satisfiability models have been proposed that are closer to practical satisfiability problems in some characteristics. In contrast to uniform random Boolean formulas, scale-free formulas have a variable occurrence distribution that follows a power law. It has been conjectured that such a distribution is a more accurate model for some industrial instances than the uniform random model. Though it seems that there is already an awareness of a threshold phenomenon in such models, there is still a complete picture lacking. In contrast to the uniform model, the critical density threshold does not lie at a single point, but instead exhibits a functional dependency on the power-law exponent. For scale-free formulas with clauses of length k=2, we give a lower bound on the phase transition threshold as a function of the scaling parameter. We also perform computational studies that suggest our bound is tight and investigate the critical density for formulas with higher clause lengths. Similar to the uniform model, on formulas with k>=3, we find that the phase transition regime corresponds to a set of formulas that are difficult to solve by backtracking search.
Collision Detection and Handling for SPH-based Viscoelastic Fluid Simulation

Particle penetration is a common problem in viscoelastic fluid simulation. This paper proposes a method to avoid this problem without reducing the real-time effect. This paper uses the implicit function primitive method to describe the boundary of the container and realizes the process to detect the collision between the particles and the container's boundary. In addition, this paper proposes to use the projection and reflection method to modify the position and speed of the collision particles. The experimental results show that the particles move along the boundary or fold rather than penetrate when they collide with the boundary, which proves the correctness of the proposed method. In addition, the average frame rate of the simulation is 27.1 frames per second, which shows that the proposed method has met the real-time requirement.
A novel phenolic propanediamine moiety-based lung-targeting therapy for asthma

Abstract Asthma is one of the most prevalent chronic inflammatory diseases of lung. Current asthma therapy using inhaled corticosteroid often results in undesired treatment outcome due to poor compliance and drugs’ lack of tissue specificity. N,N,N’-trimethyl-N’-(2-hydroxyl-3-methyl-5-123Iiodobenzyl)-1,3-propanediamine (HIPD), a phenolic propanediamine derivative, has been used as an imaging agent for localized pulmonary diseases. Inspired by this, N,N,N’-trimethyl-N’-(4-hydroxyl-benzyl)-1,3-propanediamine (TPD), a new HIPD analog, was proposed as a lung-targeting ligand and covalently conjugated to an anti-inflammatory compound Rhein for asthma therapy. Cellular uptake efficiency of TPD-Rhein by A549 cells was significantly enhanced compared with Rhein. The enhanced cellular uptake was mainly mediated by organic cation transporters (OCTs) in an active manner, showing concentration- and energy-dependent. After systemic administration in rats, TPD-Rhein specifically distributed to lungs, displaying the highest Cmax and AUC0−t values of all tested tissues and resulting in a 13-fold increase in Cmax and a 103-fold increase in AUC0−t for lung compared with Rhein. Also, TPD-Rhein remarkably decreased serum histamine levels, serum IL-5 levels as well as bronchoalveolar lavage fluid IL-5 levels in lungs of asthmatic rats challenged by ovalbumin (OVA). Accordingly, histological examinations demonstrated that TPD-Rhein attenuated lung inflammation in rats, with no apparent toxicity against major organs. Together, phenolic propanediamine-based lung-targeting approach represents an efficient and safe strategy for asthma therapy.
Large eddy simulations of the influence of piston position on the swirling flow in a model two-stroke diesel engine

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of piston position on the in-cylinder swirling flow in a simplified model of a large two-stroke marine diesel engine. Design/methodology/approach – Large eddy simulations with four different models for the turbulent flow are used: a one-equation model, a dynamic one-equation model, a localized dynamic one-equation model and a mixed-scale model. Simulations are carried out for two different geometries corresponding to 100 and 50 percent open scavenge ports. Findings – It is found that the mean tangential profile inside the cylinder changes qualitatively with port closure from a Lamb-Oseen vortex profile to a solid body rotation, while the axial velocity changes from a wake-like profile to a jet-like profile. The numerical results are compared with particle image velocimetry measurements, and in general, the authors find a good agreement. Research limitations/implications – Considering the complexity of the real engine, the authors designed the engi.
Force of infection of dengue serotypes in a population-based study in the northeast of Brazil

SUMMARY This study investigated anti-dengue serotype-specific neutralizing antibodies in a random sample of dengue IgG-positive individuals identified in a survey performed in a hyperendemic setting in northeastern Brazil in 2005. Of 323 individuals, 174 (53·8%) had antibodies to dengue virus serotype 1 (DENV-1), 104 (32·2%) to DENV-2 and 301 (93·2%) to DENV-3. Monotypic infections by DENV-3 were the most frequent infection (35·6%). Of 109 individuals aged <15 years, 61·5% presented multitypic infections. The force of infection estimated by a catalytic model was 0·9%, 0·4% and 2·5% person-years for DENV-1, DENV-2 and DENV-3, respectively. By the age of 5 years, about 70%, 30% and 40% of participants were immune to DENV-3, DENV-2 and DENV-1, respectively. The data suggest that infection with DENV-1, -2 and -3 is intense at early ages, demonstrating the need for research efforts to investigate dengue infection in representative population samples of Brazilian children during early infancy.
Projections of hip arthroplasty in OECD countries up to 2050

Objective: The study aims to estimate the future demand of hip arthroplasty for OECD countries and to compare the results with earlier studies. Design: Based on data availability and validity 20 countries out of the OECD sample have been selected for projection analysis. Using historic data (1995–2012) and multiple linear regression technics a projection model was designed by an iterative process considering different explanatory variables such as health care expenditure, age groups, and projection time frames. Results: The utilisation of hip implants in OECD countries continues to grow by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.2%, leading to an increase from 1.8 million per year in 2015 to 2.8 (2.6–2.9) in the year 2050. The mean utilisation rate (incidence) of hip implants will increase from 184 (143–312) to 275 (174–457) per 100.000 total population in the same time. Australia, Ireland, Norway, Switzerland and other countries will face a significant increase of utilisation of hip implants between +95% and +120% from 2015 to 2050. Conclusions: Hip arthroplasty continues to rise significantly over the next 35 years. Therefore, some countries will face an exponential use of hip arthroplasty of additional 100% or more and thus challenges for their health care budgets. Revision burden will increase disproportionately. Thus, health technology assessment (HTA) for medical devices, longevity and quality control will become more relevant.
Comprehensive Antiretroviral Restriction Factor Profiling Reveals the Evolutionary Imprint of the ex Vivo and in Vivo IFN-β Response in HTLV-1-Associated Neuroinflammation

HTLV-1-Associated Myelopathy (HAM/TSP) is a progressive neuroinflammatory disorder for which no disease-modifying treatment exists. Modest clinical benefit from type I interferons (IFN-α/β) in HAM/TSP contrasts with its recently identified IFN-inducible gene signature. In addition, IFN-α treatment in vivo decreases proviral load and immune activation in HAM/TSP, whereas IFN-β therapy decreases tax mRNA and lymphoproliferation. We hypothesize this “IFN paradox” in HAM/TSP might be explained by both cell type- and gene-specific effects of type I IFN in HTLV-1-associated pathogenesis. Therefore, we analyzed ex vivo transcriptomes of CD4+ T cells, PBMCs and whole blood in healthy controls, HTLV-1-infected individuals, and HAM/TSP patients. First, we used a targeted approach, simultaneously quantifying HTLV-1 mRNA (HBZ, Tax), proviral load and 42 host genes with known antiretroviral (anti-HIV) activity in purified CD4+ T cells. This revealed two major clusters (“antiviral/protective” vs. “proviral/deleterious”), as evidenced by significant negative (TRIM5/TRIM22/BST2) vs. positive correlation (ISG15/PAF1/CDKN1A) with HTLV-1 viral markers and clinical status. Surprisingly, we found a significant inversion of antiretroviral activity of host restriction factors, as evidenced by opposite correlation to in vivo HIV-1 vs. HTLV-1 RNA levels. The anti-HTLV-1 effect of antiviral cluster genes was significantly correlated to their adaptive chimp/human evolution score, for both Tax mRNA and PVL. Six genes of the proposed antiviral cluster underwent lentivirus-driven purifying selection during primate evolution (TRIM5/TRIM22/BST2/APOBEC3F-G-H), underscoring the cross-retroviral evolutionary imprint. Secondly, we examined the genome-wide type I IFN response in HAM/TSP patients, following short-term ex vivo culture of PBMCs with either IFN-α or IFN-β. Microarray analysis evidenced 12 antiretroviral genes (including TRIM5α/TRIM22/BST2) were significantly up-regulated by IFN-β, but not IFN-α, in HAM/TSP. This was paralleled by a significant decrease in lymphoproliferation by IFN-β, but not IFN-α treatment. Finally, using published ex vivo whole blood transcriptomic data of independent cohorts, we validated the significant positive correlation between TRIM5, TRIM22, and BST2 in HTLV-1-infected individuals and HAM/TSP patients, which was independent of the HAM/TSP disease signature. In conclusion, our results provide ex vivo mechanistic evidence for the observed immunovirological effect of in vivo IFN-β treatment in HAM/TSP, reconcile an apparent IFN paradox in HTLV-1 research and identify biomarkers/targets for a precision medicine approach.
GADAM: Genetic-Evolutionary ADAM for Deep Neural Network Optimization

Deep neural network learning can be formulated as a non-convex optimization problem. Existing optimization algorithms, e.g., Adam, can learn the models fast, but may get stuck in local optima easily. In this paper, we introduce a novel optimization algorithm, namely GADAM (Genetic-Evolutionary Adam). GADAM learns deep neural network models based on a number of unit models generations by generations: it trains the unit models with Adam, and evolves them to the new generations with genetic algorithm. We will show that GADAM can effectively jump out of the local optima in the learning process to obtain better solutions, and prove that GADAM can also achieve a very fast convergence. Extensive experiments have been done on various benchmark datasets, and the learning results will demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the GADAM algorithm.
Automated Data Extraction Using Predictive Program Synthesis

In recent years there has been rising interest in the use of programming-by-example techniques to assist users in data manipulation tasks. Such techniques rely on an explicit input-output examples specification from the user to automatically synthesize programs. However, in a wide range of data extraction tasks it is easy for a human observer to predict the desired extraction by just observing the input data itself. Such predictive intelligence has not yet been explored in program synthesis research, and is what we address in this work. We describe a predictive program synthesis algorithm that infers programs in a general form of extraction DSLs (domain specific languages) given input-only examples. We describe concrete instantiations of such DSLs and the synthesis algorithm in the two practical application domains of text extraction and web extraction, and present an evaluation of our technique on a range of extraction tasks encountered in practice.
Spot Volatility Estimation of Ito Semimartingales Using Delta Sequences

OF THE Spot Volatility Estimation of Itô Semimartingales Using Delta Sequences by Weixuan Gao Master of Arts in Statistics Washington University in St. Louis, 2016 Professor José E. Figueroa-López, Chair Abstract: This thesis studies a unifying class of nonparametric spot volatility estimators proposed by Mancini et. al.(2013). This method is based on delta sequences and is conceived to include many of the existing estimators in the field as special cases. The thesis first surveys the asymptotic theory of the proposed estimators under an infill asymptotic scheme and fixed time horizon, when the state variable follows a Brownian semimartingale. Then, some extensions to include jumps and financial microstructure noise in the observed price process are also presented. The main goal of the thesis is to assess the suitability of the proposed methods with both high-frequency simulated data and real transaction data from the stock market. In conclusion, double exponential kernel shows the best properties when estimating. Besides, the theorem is robust with the presence of jumps and microstructure noise and the U-shape curves of intraday spot volatility are achieved. Keyword: Spot volatility, High-frequency estimation, Delta sequences, Microstructure noise, Kernel estimator vii Chapter
Top-down proteomics: applications, recent developments and perspectives

Now-a-days, top-down proteomics (TDP) is a booming approach for the analysis of intact proteins and it is attaining significant interest in the field of protein biology. The term has emerged as an alternative to the well-established, bottom-up strategies for analysis of peptide fragments derived from either enzymatically or chemically digestion of intact proteins. TDP is applied to mass spectrometric analysis of intact large biomolecules that are constituents of protein complexes and assemblies. This article delivers an overview of the methodologies in top-down mass spectrometry, mass spectrometry instrumentation and an extensive review of applications covering the venomics, biomedical research, protein biology including the analysis of protein post-translational modifications (PTMs), protein biophysics, and protein complexes. In addition, limitations of top-down proteomics, challenges and future directions of TDP are also discussed.
Rethinking the Link Prediction Problem in Signed Social Networks

We rethink the link prediction problem in signed social networks by also considering "no-relation" as a future status of a node pair, rather than simply distinguishing positive and negative links proposed in the literature. To understand the underlying mechanism of link formation in signed networks, we propose a feature framework on the basis of a thorough exploration of potential features for the newly identified problem. Grounded on the framework, we also design a trinary classification model, and experimental results show that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches.
Targeting the B-cell receptor pathway: a review of current and future therapies for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

ABSTRACT Introduction: The B-cell receptor (BCR) pathway is a crucial aspect of mature lymphocytes and is maintained in B-cell neoplasms. Many small module inhibitors targeting kinases within the BCR pathway are approved, with others in development, offering alternative treatment options to standard chemoimmunotherapy. Areas covered: This review covers both approved inhibitors and investigational inhibitors of spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK), Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK), and phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) in the treatment of B-cell lymphomas. To collect relevant articles, a literature search was completed through the use of PubMed and abstracts from ASH and ASCO national meetings. Search terms including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and BCR inhibitors, as well as the individual drug names, were utilized. The majority of included studies are dated from 2012 to March 2018. Expert opinion: BCR pathway inhibitors, such as ibrutinib and idelalisib, are novel treatments for non-Hodgkin lymphomas. While providing alternative treatment options to those with high-risk disease, poor functional status, and relapsed disease, outside of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), they have been limited to the relapsed/refractory setting. Their mechanisms of action, off/on-target effects, and resistance patterns create unique therapeutic dilemmas. It is our opinion that more specific inhibitors, as well as combination therapy, will define the future for BCR inhibitors.