Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Motivations and Experiences of Canadians Seeking Treatment for Lyme Disease Outside of the Conventional Canadian Health-Care System

Objective: We aimed to describe the experiences of Canadians who seek diagnosis and treatment for Lyme disease outside of the conventional Canadian health-care system. Methods: Forty-five individuals who had sought treatment for Lyme disease outside of the conventional Canadian health-care system were recruited from Lyme support and advocacy groups across Canada to answer open-ended questions about their experiences. Results: Respondents sought treatment outside of the conventional medical system due to extensive diagnostic procedures and treatments that did not resolve symptoms. Escalating health concerns, lack of effective treatment, and stigma produced a sense of abandonment and desperation. Respondents accessed alternative forms of care based on the recommendations of peers, yet considerable financial and emotional stress was experienced. Conclusions: Many individuals with Lyme or Lyme-like diseases are deeply dissatisfied with the care received within the conventional Canadian health-care system and therefore felt both pushed and pulled to seek treatments either from international physicians using different treatment protocols or from alternative medicine providers in Canada.
Adaptive Robust Synchronization Control of a Dual-Linear-Motor-Driven Gantry With Rotational Dynamics and Accurate Online Parameter Estimation

For dual-linear-motor-driven (DLMD) gantry systems widely used in industrial applications, the strong mechanical coupling usually makes it difficult to achieve both good tracking and smooth operation performance simultaneously. In most of the existing control schemes, only the pure motion synchronization is considered, which may produce large internal forces leading to performance degradation and control chattering/saturation. In this paper, an accurate MIMO mathematical model of a DLMD gantry including both the traditional linear motion and the previously ignored rotational motion around the mass center is given, leading to a better understanding of the mechanical coupling and the internal forces caused by the rotational dynamics. Additionally, some physical parameters in the rotational dynamics having significant influences on the synchronization performance are discussed (e.g., the actual centroid position essentially determines the proper thrusts assigned to two parallel motors). An advanced synchronization control scheme is presented subsequently by directly considering the additive rotational dynamics and accurate parameter estimation (e.g., the actual centroid position), which not only synchronizes the motions of two parallel motors but also regulates the internal forces. The technique of integrated desired compensation direct/indirect adaptive robust control is applied to synthesize the synchronization controller for both accurate parameter estimation and a guaranteed robust performance to various uncertainties. Comparative experiments with previous control schemes show the effectiveness and better synchronization performance of the proposed method.
habitat-forming species Extreme climatic event drives range contraction of a

References http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing. org/content/280/1754/20122829.full. html#ref-list-1 This article cites 51 articles, 9 of which can be accessed free Subject collections (1248 articles) ecology  Articles on similar topics can be found in the following collections Email alerting service here right-hand corner of the article or click Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article sign up in the box at the top
An efficient ward-based copy-move forgery detection method for digital image forensic

In recent years, with the improvement of digital manipulation tools, image forgeries have become a genuine social issue. Copy-move forgery is an important type of digital manipulation which is done by duplicating some parts of the image with the purpose of hiding specific information. Verifying the authenticity of the digital image can become vital for different forensic organizations. In this paper, an efficient copy-move detection algorithm with three level of Ward linkage based clustering is proposed. The proposed algorithm extracts the local image features with the help of Scale-invariant feature transform algorithm (SIFT). In the proposed method, a Ward-based clustering scheme followed by three levels of false-descriptor elimination is applied. The proposed elimination system utilizes Euclidean distance to improve the accuracy of the region detection scheme. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is examined against several different post-processing attacks such as multilevel forgeries, noises, and JPEG compression. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed algorithm improves the detection accuracy by eliminating false descriptors.
Resistor Network Modeling of Conductive Domain Walls in Lithium Niobate

Here the concept of a 2D resistor network (2D RN) is applied in order to model the electrical conductivity along sheet‐like domain walls (DWs) in single crystalline lithium niobate (sc‐LNO). The only input to the RN modeling approach is the DW inclination angle distribution, as measured previously with respect to the polar c‐axis. The simulations then show that a 2D network of Ohmic resistors not only adequately accounts for the different boundary conditions envisaged in experiments, but equally well provides a direct link between the local domain wall conductivity (DWC) and the DW inclination angle α. Moreover, the RN simulations can be directly compared to local‐scale transport measurements, as obtained by scanning probe techniques. The conceptual simplicity and the low computational effort make the present RN modeling approach a useful tool for both the advanced interpretation and evaluation of potential DWC ferroelectrics.
Observations of Flow and Sediment Entrainment on a Large Gravel-Bed River

Constant-discharge reservoir releases on the Trinity River, California, provide an unusual opportunity to unambiguously relate flow and gravel entrainment on a large gravel-bed river. Bed shear stress т0 was estimated using local observations of depth-averaged velocity. Gravel entrainment was measured using large tracer gravel installations. Lateral variability of т0 is large, even for straight channels with simple, trough-like geometry. No simple relation exists between local and cross-section mean values of т0 . Fine grains (less than 8 mm; 20–30% of the bed material) are transported at lower discharges than coarse grains. Scour to the base of the bed surface layer occurs at a dimensionless shear stress тg* ≈ 0.035, for тg* formed using local т0 and the median grain size of the gravel portion of the bed. The dimensionless reference transport rate W* = 0.002, often used as a surrogate for the threshold of grain motion, occurs at nearly the same тg*. At smaller тg*, entrainment and transport rates decrease rapidly, becoming vanishingly small at тg* ≈ 0.031. Even at very small gravel transport rates, all sizes are transported, although the coarsest sizes are in a state of partial transport in which only a portion of the exposed grains are entrained. Both entrainment and cumulative transport observations suggest that maximum scour depth for plane-bed transport is slightly less than twice the surface layer thickness.
Error Bounds for Terahertz MIMO Positioning of Swarm UAVs for Distributed Sensing

Distributed sensing, where multiple observations from spatially separated antennas are combined, offers many advantages over conventional sensing techniques. The recent advances in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles give rise to an entirely new field of application of distributed sensing. We consider a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles, where each node of the swarm is equipped with one or multiple antennas, and the swarm senses a target signal collaboratively. With such a swarm, the most compelling feature is that the virtual aperture formed by all the nodes of the swarm is mobile and can be reconfigured. It is well known from the field of distributed sensing that the position of every antenna of the virtual aperture needs to be known precisely to coherently combine the sensed signal. Hence the position of every unmanned aerial vehicle must be determined up to fractions of the sensing wavelength. In order to achieve such a high position accuracy, we consider multiple input multiple output links between nodes, which use orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signals in the terahertz band. We analyze the position and orientation estimation capabilities of such links with respect to the bandwidth, array size, and transmitter-receiver separation. We provide numerical results which reveal the conditions required for millimeter- level positioning accuracy.
Cooperative Content Caching in 5G Networks with Mobile Edge Computing

Along with modern wireless networks being content-centric, the demand for rich multimedia services has been growing at a tremendous pace, which brings significant challenges to mobile networks in terms of the need for massive content delivery. Edge caching has emerged as a promising approach to alleviate the heavy burden on data transmission through caching and forwarding contents at the edge of networks. However, existing studies always treat storage and computing resources separately, and neglect the mobility characteristic of both the content caching nodes and end users. Driven by these issues, in this work, we propose a new cooperative edge caching architecture for 5G networks, where mobile edge computing resources are utilized for enhancing edge caching capability. In the architecture, we focus on mobility-aware hierarchical caching, where smart vehicles are taken as collaborative caching agents for sharing content cache tasks with base stations. To further utilize the caching resource of smart vehicles, we introduce a new vehicular caching cloud concept, and propose a vehicle-aided edge caching scheme, where the caching and computing resources at the wireless network edge are jointly scheduled. Numerical results indicate that the proposed scheme minimizes content access latency and improves caching resource utilization.
Surface-based Fractional Transport Rates: Mobilization Thresholds and Partial Transport of a Sand-gravel Sediment

Twenty-eight coupled observations of flow, transport, and bed surface grain size distribution were made in a laboratory flume using a wide range of flows and a sediment with a very poorly sorted, bimodal grain size distribution. These observations permit the transport rates of individual size fractions to be scaled by the proportion of each size immediately available for transport on the bed surface. The key to our observations is the use of a sediment in which each size fraction has been painted a different color, which permits reliable, repeatable, and nondestructive measurement of the bed surface grain size distribution from photographs of the bed surface. At a given flow, the fractional transport rates may be divided into two parts: a finer-grained portion within which fractional transport rates are a function only of their proportion on the bed surface and total transport rate, and a coarser-grained portion for which fractional transport rates also depend on the proportion of individual grains within a fraction that remain essentially immobile throughout the experimental run. We define the latter condition as one of partial transport and observe that the grain size separating partial and fully mobilized transport consistently increases with flow strength. Complete mobilization of a size fraction occurs at roughly twice the shear stress necessary for incipient motion of that fraction. Zones of partial and full mobility are quite distinct when fractional transport rates are scaled by the bed surface grain size distribution, although a region of partial transport is evident when these data and other experimental and field observations are scaled by the bulk grain size distribution of the sediment bed. Critical shear stresses for the incipient motion of individual fractions in our experimental sediment vary over an order of magnitude, a result strongly in contrast to many earlier observations, but consistent with our observations of incipient motion in sediments with bimodal grain size distributions.
Pig Lung Immune Cytokine Response to the Swine Influenza Virus and the Actinobacillus Pleuropneumoniae Infection

Abstract Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the local innate immune response to the swine influenza virus (SIV) and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (App) infection in pigs. Material and Methods: The study was performed on 37 seven-week-old pigs, divided into four groups: App-infected (n=11), App+SIV-infected (n=11), SIV-infected (n=11), and control (n=4). Lung samples were collected, following euthanasia, on the 2nd and 4th dpi (three piglets per inoculated group) and on the 10th dpi (remaining inoculated and control pigs). Lung concentrations of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, IL-10, IFN-α, and IFN-γ were analysed with the use of commercial porcine cytokine ELISA kits. Results: Lung concentrations of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, IFN-α, and IFN-γ were induced in SIV-infected and App+SIV-infected pigs. In the lung tissue of App-infected pigs, only concentrations of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and IFN-γ were elevated. Additionally, in App+SIV-infected pigs, significantly greater concentrations of IL-1β, IL-8, and IFN-α were found when compared with pigs infected with either SIV or App alone. In each tested group, the lung concentration of IL-10 remained unchanged during the entire study. Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that the experimental infection of pigs with SIV or App alone and co-infection with both pathogens induced a local lung inflammatory response. However, the local cytokine response was considerably higher in co-infected pigs compared to singleinfected pigs
Lumbar Selective Nerve Root Block: Comparative Study Using Two Pharmacological Formulae

Study Design: Retrospective cohort study. Objectives: The objective of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of 2 different pharmacological formulae in selective nerve root injections. Methods: We studied a series of 298 patients who received a selective nerve root injection and made a comparative study dividing them into 2 groups according to the drugs used. In group A, we used betamethasone 6 mg and lidocaine, while in group B, triamcinolone 60 mg and bupivacaine were used for the procedure. We evaluated the patients for a period of at least 8 months, assuming the need for surgical therapy as the failure of the procedure. Results: Both groups had 149 patients with similar etiological characteristics. Forty-seven patients (16%) required surgery to relieve pain with a similar distribution between groups (24 from group A and 23 from group B). Time between nerve root injection and surgery was 86.79 (14-360) days on average in group A and 75.76 (2-180) days in group B with no statistical difference (P = .67). Only one complication was documented, an anaphylactic shock in a patient in group B. Conclusions: Based on these results, we found no difference in the type of steroid or local anesthetic used for selective nerve root injections.
MINIMUM-COST FLOW PROBLEM AND APPLICATIONS IN NETWORKS Nguyen

We consider the problem of finding the minimum cost of a feasible flow in directed networks. We allow real-valued upper bounds and convex and differentiable cost functions for the flows on arcs. In this paper, we present an efficient algorithm to solve such a large class of minimum cost flow problem (MCF). A key innovation is the modified conditions of primal-dual method that can be applied for convex and differentiable cost functions. Our algorithm modifies and extends the maximum flow algorithm by Ford and Fulkerson based on these modified conditions. It works on the principle of incrementing the network flow along augmenting paths of minimum cost. The algorithm presented in this paper efficiently applies in many applications, especially in network topology. The applications of this algorithm in a real network and drawbacks in practice are also discussed.
Phosphorus availability, phytoplankton community dynamics, and taxon‐specific phosphorus status in the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea

The relationships among phytoplankton taxon‐specific phosphorus‐status, phytoplankton community composition, and nutrient levels were assessed over three seasons in the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea. During summer and fall, stratified surface waters were depleted of nutrients, and picophytoplankton populations comprised the majority of cells (80% and 88%, respectively). In winter, surface nutrient concentrations were higher and larger phytoplankton were more abundant (63%). Cell‐specific alkaline phosphatase activity (APA) derived from enzyme‐labeled fluorescence was consistently low (<5%) in the picophytoplankton population throughout the year, whereas larger cells expressed increased APA (up to 68% labeling in some taxa) during the summer and fall but less in the winter. A nutrient addition bioassay during the fall showed that after addition of orthophosphate along with a nitrogen source, APA in larger cells was reduced by half relative to the control, whereas the APA of picophytoplankton groups remained low (<1%) across all treatments. These results indicate that the most abundant phytoplankton in the gulf are not limited by orthophosphate, and only some subpopulations (particularly of larger cells) exhibit orthophosphate limitation throughout the year, and more so in the summer and fall. Our results indicate that orthophosphate availability influences phytoplankton ecology, correlating with shifts in phytoplankton community structure and the nutrient status of individual cells. The role of dissolved organic phosphorus as an important phosphorus source for marine phytoplankton in oligotrophic settings and the need for evaluating nutrient limitation at the taxa and/or single cell level (rather than inferring it from nutrient concentrations and ratios or bulk enzyme activity measurements) are highlighted.
Delay-Aware Radio Resource Allocation Optimization for Network Slicing in Fog Radio Access Networks

Fog radio access networks (F-RANs) take full advantages of both fog and cloud computing technologies, and benefit from using network slicing to support diverse services with different quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. In this paper, to make the network slicing in F-RANs work efficiently, the radio resource allocation for different network slices is exploited in a downlink F-RAN with device-to-device communication, which is logically partitioned into a high-transmission-rate slice and a low-latency slice. A multi-objective optimization problem is presented with respect to diverse QoS demands, which can be formulated as a single-objective optimization problem with a linear weighted sum method. Then an equivalent drift-plus-penalty minimization problem with Lyapunov optimization is proposed, in which two subproblems are partitioned and solved by weighted minimum mean square error approach and Lagrange dual decomposition method, respectively. Numerical results confirm that a [O(1/V),O(V)] utility-delay tradeoff is obtained, in which either a 34.5% reduction in the queuing delay or a 6.5% increase in the average weighted utility can be achieved in a specific model by choosing proper values of V.
Inverse Models and Harmonics Compensation for Suppressing Torque Ripples of Multiphase Permanent Magnet Motor

This paper presents two methods to derive an inverse model in harmonic forms for analyzing the interactions between the torque/current gains and currents, and for suppressing the torque ripples of a multiphase permanent magnet (PM) motor. The first method directly calculates the desired current harmonics from a pseudo-inverse model of a multiphase PM motor with no input-voltage saturation, which is independent of its rotor displacements, for torque ripple compensation. The second is an iterative-free method formulating the inverse model as an optimization problem that minimizes the copper loss subject to torque constraints while accounting for the effects of the input-voltage saturation. The formulation and significance of the two methods are illustrated with a multiphase PM motor for which published measurements are available for model validation and compared with three other commonly used current waveforms for benchmark comparison in terms of torque-ripples and copper losses.
Distant Rhythm: Automatic Enjambment Detection on Four Centuries of Spanish Sonnets

Enjambment takes place when a syntactic unit is broken up across two lines of poetry, giving rise to different stylistic effects. In Spanish literary studies, detailed case-studies of the phenomenon based on single authors exist. However, a larger-scale study spanning hundreds of major and minor authors, across several centuries, is not available so far. Towards that need, we have developed software based on Natural Language Processing (NLP), to automatically identify enjambment (and its type) in Spanish. To evaluate the system, we manually annotated two reference corpora (one diachronic, one from the 20th century). Results are satisfactory for the system's first version, with F1 varying depending on period and enjambment type. As a scholarly corpus to apply the tool, from public HTML sources we created a diachronic corpus covering four centuries of sonnets (3750 poems). We applied the tool to analyze the occurrence of enjambment across stanzaic boundaries in different periods.
Seq2RDF: An End-to-end Application for Deriving Triples from Natural Language Text

We present an end-to-end approach that takes unstructured textual input and generates structured output compliant with a given vocabulary. Inspired by recent successes in neural machine translation, we treat the triples within a given knowledge graph as an independent graph language and propose an encoder-decoder framework with an attention mechanism that leverages knowledge graph embeddings. Our model learns the mapping from natural language text to triple representation in the form of subject-predicate-object using the selected knowledge graph vocabulary. Experiments on three different data sets show that we achieve competitive F1-Measures over the baselines using our simple yet effective approach. A demo video is included.
Photogrammetric debitage analysis: Measuring Maori toolmaking evidence

The stone tools and other artefacts produced by pre-European Maori show a remarkable level of craftsmanship, but it is not clear how these tools were produced. Analysis of debitage — the fragments left behind at manufacturing sites — offers insight into this process. While an individual stone flake or fragment offers little information, statistics across the entire collection from a particular site are of great archaeological interest. Currently, each individual fragment is measured by hand — a laborious, time-consuming, and error-prone approach. We show that image-based 3D reconstruction of stone flakes can be used to automate some of the common measurements made by archaeologists. We demonstrate our techniques on a small collection of flakes and obtain similar accuracy to manual measurements.