Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ransplantation of Liver Grafts From Older Donors: mpact on Recipients With Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Introduction. Older donor allografts are being accepted for liver transplantation (LTx) due to shortage of organs. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection–related disease is presently the most common indication of LT in the United States. We studied the impact of donor age on patient and graft survivals in patients with HCV infection. Patients and methods. One hundred fifty four consecutive HCV( ) LTx recipients (117 men, 37 women) were studied. The mean follow-up period was 41.0 30.2 months. The population was divided into four groups according to donor age: group I ( 20 years); group II (21 to 40 years); group III (41 to 60 years); group IV ( 60 years). Results. Thirty-two (20.8%) patients died during follow-up and 16 patients (10.4%) required retransplantation. The actuarial 7-year patient survivals for groups I, II, III, and IV were 87.1%, 73.7%, 69.3%, and 68.5%, respectively (P .4). Patient survivals for donor age groups III IV (n 95) and groups I II (n 59) were 68.9% and 77.2%, respectively (P .19). The 7-year graft survivals for groups I, II, III, and IV were 82.7%, 71.8%, 65.8%, and 62.5%, respectively (P .17). Graft survivals for groups III IV and groups I II were 58.4% and 76.2%, respectively (P .03). Conclusion. Patient and graft survivals for HCV-positive liver transplant recipients in this study decreased progressively as the donor age increased. Patient and graft survivals were best for group I recipients. There were significant differences in graft survivals when recipients were grouped with a cutoff donor age of 40 years.
WST 50.7 L28 corr

Obtaining reliably high compaction characteristics and low SVI values has enormous economic consequences on activated sludge plant design and operation. Now that use of selectors has become more common for achieving low SVI values, the assessment of the full-scale performance characteristics of activated sludge plants incorporating selectors has high value for the design and operation of future plants. Treatment plant effluent quality is seldom analyzed solely on an average basis and the impact peak events have on effluent quality must be considered in design and operation. Descriptive statistics should also be used to assess selector performance, so that the influence of infrequently occurring values on plant design and operation can be assessed. The performance of 21 activated sludge plants incorporating selectors was evaluated. All the selector plants for which post installation data were available showed that the operating SVI values were significantly improved. One plant studied in detail showed that final effluent quality was significantly better after the selector installation. As a group, activated sludge plants with anaerobic selectors outperform those with anoxic selectors. Dissolved oxygen control is just as important in activated sludge plants with selectors as in conventional activated sludge plants.
Performance Profiling of Embedded ConvNets under Thermal-Aware DVFS

Convolutional Neural Networks (ConvNets) can be shrunk to fit embedded CPUs adopted on mobile end-nodes, like smartphones or drones. The deployment onto such devices encompasses several algorithmic level optimizations, e.g., topology restructuring, pruning, and quantization, that reduce the complexity of the network, ensuring less resource usage and hence higher speed. Several studies revealed remarkable performance, paving the way towards real-time inference on low power cores. However, continuous execution at maximum speed is quite unrealistic due to a fast increase of the on-chip temperature. Indeed, proper thermal management is paramount to guarantee silicon reliability and a safe user experience. Power management schemes, like voltage lowering and frequency scaling, are common knobs to control the thermal stability. Obviously, this implies a performance degradation, often not considered during the training and optimization stages. The objective of this work is to present the performance assessment of embedded ConvNets under thermal management. Our study covers the behavior of two control policies, namely reactive and proactive, implemented through the Dynamic Voltage-Frequency Scaling (DVFS) mechanism available on commercial embedded CPUs. As benchmarks, we used four state-of-the-art ConvNets for computer vision flashed into the ARM Cortex-A15 CPU. With the collected results, we aim to show the existing temperature-performance trade-off and give a more realistic analysis of the maximum performance achievable. Moreover, we empirically demonstrate the strict relationship between the on-chip thermal behavior and the hyper-parameters of the ConvNet, revealing optimization margins for a thermal-aware design of neural network layers.
THE EFFECT OF ADDING SMALL AMOUNTS OF ZNO IN COMPACTED BOVINE HYDROXYAPATITE FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

This work is concerned with the effect of trace element amount (%wt) in the properties of the sintered bovine hydroxyapatite (BHA). The BHA powders were mixed with various percentage of ZnO ranging from 0 wt. % to 15 wt. % by magnetic stirrer. The dry powders were uniaxially pressed at 312 MPa. For comparison purpose, synthetic HA also produced using the same process. It has been found that the relative density decreases with increasing of ZnO content. The additions of ZnO have shown an increasing of Vickers hardness with the highest of the micro Vickers hardness obtained in 1.5 wt. % ZnO. The BHA have stable phase stability at within the range of 0.5 wt% to 1.0 wt% and 2.0 wt% to 5.0 wt. %. The decomposition occurs as the ZnO increased to 10 wt. % and 15 wt. %. Thus, material preparation plays an important role on determining the effect of sintered BHA. Keyword: Bovine Hydroxyapatite, trace elements, ZnO, Vickers hardness.
Smart Communication Infrastructures: A Probabilistic and Context-Aware System Design for Efficient and Dynamic Cloudlet-Management

The paradigm of edge computing emerges as the next revolution in computer networking. Cloudlets – as an implementation of edge computing – are mobility-enhanced small-scale data centers on the edge of the network. They serve users located in their geographical proximity. This proximity brings various advantages, such as low latency and better service quality. Prior studies investigating the optimal placement of cloudlets assume a global view with complete information – an unrealistic and not really implementable assumption. This study presents a more realistic view on the matter and accounts for the information asymmetries among the stakeholders involved in a cloudlet scenario. Further, we introduce a system design that enables efficient exchange of relevant placement information, with the ability to dynamically adapt to contextual factors. Since the effectiveness of placement decisions depends on service usage, which is subjected to constant change, our system design can bring a significant improvement related to the cloudlet placement decisions.
Saturated Absorption Spectroscopy

You will use a tunable diode laser to carry out spectroscopic studies of the rubidium atom. You will measure the Doppler-broadened absorption profiles of the D2 transitions at 780 nm and then use the technique of saturated absorption spectroscopy to improve the resolution beyond the Doppler limit and measure the nuclear hyperfine splittings, which are less than 1 ppm of the wavelength. A FabryPerot optical resonator is used to calibrate the frequency scale for the measurements. Saturated absorption experiments were cited in the 1981 Nobel prize in physics and related techniques have been used in laser cooling and trapping experiments cited in the 1997 Nobel prize as well as Bose-Einstein condensation experiments cited in the 2001 Nobel prize. Although the basic principles are straightforward, you will only be able to unleash the full power of saturated absorption spectroscopy by carefully attending to many details.
What Determines School Segregation? The Crucial Role of Neighborhood Factors

Abstract We develop a novel strategy to identify the relative importance of school and neighborhood factors in determining school segregation. Using detailed student enrollment and residential location data, our research design compares differences in student composition between adjacent Census blocks served by different schools to analogous differences between those schools. Our findings indicate that neighborhood factors explain around 62% of racial segregation and 44% of economic segregation across all schools, playing an even more pronounced role in urban areas, where school segregation has been especially acute. These findings suggest that the involvement of urban planners is essential when attempting to confront inequality of opportunity through education.
The Effective Chattering Suppression Technique with Adaptive Super-Twisted Sliding Mode Controller Based on the Quasi-Barrier Function; An Experimentation Setup

The paper presents a modified adaptation algorithm for the super-twisted sliding mode controller structure, based on the barrier function method. The aim of the paper is to reduce the chattering phenomena of the controller, which limited the use of the controller in different applications. The chattering phenomena are mostly caused by the overestimated controller gain due to the assumed disturbance bound, which is mostly inaccurate. The chattering origins are also the unknown parasitic dynamic of the system and discrete implementation of the controller. The proposed method with the Barrier function is used to alleviate the chattering phenomena with the adaptation of the controller parameters. The novelty of the method is using an adaptation procedure only in prescribed regions of the sliding variable, otherwise, the adaptation is not used. The advantage of the method is the proper rejection of the chattering phenomena in the vicinity of the manifold of the sliding variable, regardless of the order of the system. With proper selection of the adaptation boundary, the effect of discrete implementation, especially for a longer sampling time of the algorithm, can be suppressed efficiently, as well as the effect of the overestimated controller parameters. The proposed method is verified and compared with a standard version of the algorithm in simulation and real-time environments.
Do Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale (SOCRATES) Scores Predict Readmission to an Inpatient Substance Abuse Treatment Program for Adolescents?

ABSTRACT This study investigated factors associated with readmission to an inpatient treatment program for adolescents with substance abuse disorders. Participants were 546 adolescents (68% male, N = 372). Mean age was 16.0 years. Approximately 12% of adolescents treated in this program were readmitted for a second episode of treatment. The average time to readmission for these adolescents was approximately three months (median = 82.5 days, mean = 107 days). Participants completed the Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale (SOCRATES; Miller & Tonigan, 1996) at admission and discharge. Based on previous research, it was hypothesized that adolescents’ level of readiness to change at the end of the initial inpatient treatment episode would predict readmission for additional inpatient treatment. The findings for this study did not support this hypothesis. Adolescents readmitted for a second episode of treatment did not differ from adolescents who were not readmitted on any SOCRATES subscale score at time of initial admission for inpatient treatment. Moreover, there were no differences between these groups when these adolescents completed the first episode of inpatient treatment. Overall, the present findings indicate that adolescents’ readiness to change, or level of motivation, when discharged from inpatient treatment is not associated with the likelihood of readmission for additional inpatient substance abuse treatment.
Modern Approaches to Improve the Performance of the Transport System of the City (on Moscow Case)

The article studies the problems of improving the transport service of the urban population in the aspect of improving the work of public passenger transport of the capital city. In the construction of transport facilities, it is proposed to carry out preliminary modeling, which assesses the consequences of their commissioning and saves significant financial resources. An important condition in ensuring the continuity and rhythm of public transport is the renewal of the fleet. The introduction of satellite navigation systems on public transport, the use of intelligent transport systems can reduce the level of congestion of roads and increase their capacity, optimize the use of road transport and increase the availability of transport services. A number of measures are proposed to improve the local transport situation in the cities. Keywords—urban transport system;, transport infrastructure; urbanization; population, metropolitan metropolis; strategic development of the city.
Cost and Return Analysis of Biosecurity Management in Poultry Farms in Rivers State, Nigeria

Cost of preventing disease incursion and containment in poultry management is gaining attention in scientific and public debates. Biosecurity involves the use of relevant resources to secure poultry-based food production system (products, producers and consumers health) from diseases. This study investigates whether biosecurity resources are efficiently utilized to enhance maximum profit in poultry-based food production. Primary data used for the study were obtained from 120 sampled poultry farms. Multi-stage procedure was adopted in the selection of the sampled farms. Structured questionnaire was the data collection instrument used for the investigation. Descriptive and inferential statistical tools were employed in data analysis. Also cost efficiency model and profit functions were usedto analyze data. The result shows that bio-secured poultry farms had a mean profit of N 150,230 higher than N 92,590 earned by bio-insecured farms. Profitability of biosecured poultry farms significantly and positively correlated (2.02)** with bio-security management index (p<0.05). The major constraints to bio-security management of poultry farms were high cost of effective disinfectant/vaccines and unwillingness of farmers to adopt effective biosecurity management practices. The researcher has sufficient reasons to conclude that biosecurity resources were efficiently utilized, hence the relative high profit that was realized. However, the biosecurity management index gap of 37.5% observed in the study suggests that there is still room for improvement.
The cap size and shape of Arabidopsis thaliana primary roots condition responses to an increase in medium strength.

During root progression in soil, root cap cells are the first to encounter obstacles, and are known to sense environmental cues, making the root cap a relevant candidate for a mechanosensing site. A two-layered medium system was adopted to study root responses to variations in growth medium strength and the importance of the root cap in the establishment of these responses. Root growth and trajectory of primary roots of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings were investigated using in vivo image analysis. After contact with the harder layer, the root either penetrated it or underwent rapid curvature, enabling reorientation of growth. We initially hypothesized that the root cap structure impacted apex penetration and reorientation, with pointed caps facilitating and domed caps impeding root penetration. This hypothesis was investigated by analysing the responses of Arabidopsis mutants with altered root caps. The primary root of fez-2 mutant lines, which has fewer root cap cell layers and a more pointed root cap than wild-type roots, showed impaired penetration ability. Conversely, smb-3 roots, which display a rectangular-shaped cap, showed enhanced penetration abilities. Our results, which contradict our original hypothesis, uncover a role for resistance to root buckling in determining penetration abilities.
Exogenous Jasmonic Acid Induces Lead Stress Tolerance in Kidney Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) by Changing Amino Acid Profile and Stimulating Antioxidant Defense System

In this study, the impact of different lead (Pb) concentrations (100 and 1000 μM) on growth parameters, photosynthetic pigment content, relative water content (RWC), ion homeostasis, protein and amino acid profile of kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) plants is investigated. In addition, the changes in antioxidant enzyme activities, including ascorbate peroxidase (ASPX), catalase (CAT), and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) have been determined. Reduced glutathione (GSH) content was also calculated. The potential of jasmonic acid (100 μM) as a stress-signaling molecule in alleviating the drastic effects of lead stress on kidney bean plants has been evaluated. The current study found out that Pb treatment significantly (P<0.05) reduced growth, chlorophyll contents, relative water content, essential and non-essential amino acid levels, and essential ions (Mg2+ and Ca2+). The Pb effect was directly related to the applied concentrations. The results showed that JA effectively alleviates the inhibitory effect of Pb on plant growth and chlorophyll contents, probably by reducing the Pb uptake, maintaining ion homeostasis, increasing antioxidant enzyme activity (ASPX, CAT and GST), and metal-binding molecules including GSH and amino acids such as proline and cysteine. To the researchers’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to unravel the protective role of exogenous JA in alleviating the effects of Pb stress in Phaseolus vulgaris L. , and the underlying mechanism for the JA-induced stress tolerance.
Destruction de parenchyme hépatique par ultrasons focalisés HIFU destruction of hepatic parenchyma

Objective. – High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is an effective and precise method of focal tumoral destruction since it is associated with imagery. This method is widespread for the endorectal treatment of prostatic adenocarcinomas. HIFU seem appropriate for the treatment of liver tumors but its use needs to be experimentally tested in vivo. The aim of the work is to study the feasibility, tolerance and effectiveness of the destruction of porcine liver by HIFU. Material and methods. – Ten pigs had liver destruction by HIFU after coeliotomy. Four to 5 2,3 cm 3 HIFU lesions were performed per animal under ultrasonographic control. The study included biological surveillance and an autopsy was performed 4 to 24 hours later for histological examination of the liver. Results. – The destruction of the liver was feasible in all cases and the 4 lobes of the liver could be treated. The general and biological tolerance of the procedure was excellent. Ultrasonographic features of the HIFU lesions were defined. The histological examination of the lesions showed well-circumscribed necrosis areas associated with cavitation or histological deficiencies of various degrees. * Auteur correspondant. Adresse e-mail : benoit.gignoux@chu-lyon.fr (B.M.H. Gignoux) Annales de chirurgie 128 (2003) 18–25 www.elsevier. com/locate/annchi © 2003 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. Tous droits réservés. PII: S 0 0 0 3 3 9 4 4 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 0 4 4 © 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. Tous droits réservés. Document téléchargé le 01/02/2020 Il est interdit et illégal de diffuser ce document. Conclusion. – This work demonstrated that liver destruction by HIFU is a feasible and effective method with low morbidity. A long-term experimental study is necessary before comtemplating its clinical use. © 2003 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved Mots clés : Ultrasons focalisés ; HIFU ; Chirurgie ultrasonore ; Foie
Investigating tail dependence for the Bivariate Generalized Gamma

In this study we investigate the tail dependence of the two variables of the bivariate Generalized Gamma distribution. Tail dependence plays an important role in for example the estimation of tail probabilities in multivariate models. The dependence structure in the tails are popularly describes through copulas as discussed in various literature, see for example Beirlant et al. (2004). In this paper we start by discussing the univariate Generalized Gamma distribution and then we extend the univariate distribution to the multivariate Generalized Gamma distribution. Tail dependency is then investigated for the bivariate Generalized Gamma distribution, by following the literature of Ledford and Tawn (1997), for different parameter values.
Electroacupuncture Inhibits Hyperalgesia by Alleviating Inflammatory Factors in a Rat Model of Migraine

Objective Acupuncture has a therapeutic effect similar to that of prophylactic drugs and can be considered a treatment option for migraineurs. However, the mechanism of acupuncture treatment’s effect on migraine is uncertain. An approach based on anti-inflammatory effects is an important treatment strategy for migraine because non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are usually used during migraine attacks. Meningeal inflammation is thought to be responsible for the activation of the trigeminovascular system. Our previous study found that electroacupuncture (EA) decreased neurogenic inflammation mediator expression in the trigeminal ganglion (TG) and alleviated hyperalgesia. The present study examined whether EA would inhibit hyperalgesia by alleviating neurogenic inflammatory factors. Methods A rat model of migraine was established using dural electrical stimulation (DES). Five groups were analyzed in this study. The Model group received DES three times to mimic migraine attacks, a Control group had sham DES, and three groups received electroacupuncture after DES: a Non-Acu group at a non-acupuncture point, a GB20 group at GB20, and a GB20/34 group at GB20 and GB34 acupuncture points. We evaluated mechanical hyperalgesia using an electronic von Frey esthesiometer in the awake state. After sacrifice, the dura mater was analyzed using immunofluorescence. Serum calcitonin gene-related peptide, cyclooxygenase-2, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF levels were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effect of acupuncture. Results After repeated DES, we observed facial and hind paw mechanical hyperalgesia, which was inhibited by electroacupuncture. Electrical stimulation increased the number of mast cells and macrophages and serum levels of inflammatory factors. GB20 and GB20/34 electroacupuncture significantly decreased the number of mast cells and macrophages and serum levels of inflammatory factors. Moreover, electroacupuncture at GB20/34 was superior to that at GB20 alone in inhibiting hyperalgesia and alleviating inflammatory factors. Conclusion Electroacupuncture inhibits DES-induced hyperalgesia by alleviating inflammatory factors. Inhibition of dural mast cells, macrophages, and serum inflammatory factors may be one of the mechanisms involved in acupuncture treatment’s effect on migraine.
On the MIT bag model: self-adjointness and non-relativistic limit

This paper is devoted to the mathematical investigation of the MIT bag model, that is the Dirac operator on a smooth and bounded domain of R with certain boundary conditions. We prove that the operator is self-adjoint and, when the mass m goes to ̆8, we provide spectral asymptotic results.