Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Review on structural, thermal, optical and spectroscopic properties of tellurium oxide based glasses for fibre optic and waveguide applications

This review focuses on the engineering of the structural, thermal, optical and spectroscopic properties of tellurium oxide (TeO2) glasses for their applications in fibre optic and waveguide devices. Unlike silica optical fibres, tellurium oxide glass fibres and light waveguides support propagation of light beyond ∼2 μm, where silica fibres become opaque. Silica fibres also have limited solubility for rare earth oxides due to silica’s structure, which is where tellurium oxide fibres and light waveguides can offer significant opportunities to engineer novel lasers and amplifiers for integrated optics. In this review, we compare the structural properties of TeO2 based glasses, modified by incorporating alkali, alkaline earth, and other oxide compounds. Based on Raman, UV, visible and infrared spectroscopic data, the structural aspects of tellurite glasses are discussed. The effects of compositional modification on the thermal and viscous flow properties are also compared and related with the resistance against devitrification. The significance of glass to crystal phase transformation during cooling and heating is explained in the context of preform and fibre fabrication. The review also reports on the characterisation of OH− impurities in tellurite glasses. Recent developments in tellurite fibre lasers and femtosecond laser inscribed waveguide fabrication are discussed.
Light Regulation of Gibberellin Biosynthesis in Pea Is Mediated through the COP1/HY5 Pathway[W]

Light regulation of gibberellin (GA) biosynthesis occurs in several species, but the signaling pathway through which this occurs has not been clearly established. We have isolated a new pea (Pisum sativum) mutant, long1, with a light-dependent elongated phenotype that is particularly pronounced in the epicotyl and first internode. The long1 mutation impairs signaling from phytochrome and cryptochrome photoreceptors and interacts genetically with a mutation in LIP1, the pea ortholog of Arabidopsis thaliana COP1. Mutant long1 seedlings show a dramatic impairment in the light regulation of active GA levels and the expression of several GA biosynthetic genes, most notably the GA catabolism gene GA2ox2. The long1 mutant carries a nonsense mutation in a gene orthologous to the ASTRAY gene from Lotus japonicus, a divergent ortholog of the Arabidopsis bZIP transcription factor gene HY5. Our results show that LONG1 has a central role in mediating the effects of light on GA biosynthesis in pea and demonstrate the importance of this regulation for appropriate photomorphogenic development. By contrast, LONG1 has no effect on GA responsiveness, implying that interactions between LONG1 and GA signaling are not a significant component of the molecular framework for light–GA interactions in pea.
Lipid Serum Profile in Patients with Viral Liver Cirrhosis

Objective: Our main aim was to investigate the serum lipid levels in a series of patients with liver cirrhosis of viral origin. Subjects and Methods: The study comprised 90 patients, 60 with viral liver cirrhosis, equally divided between hepatitis virus C (HCV) and B (HBV) etiologies, and 30 control patients with no known liver pathology. Patients were investigated during a 5-year period in the 1st Medical Clinic of the Emergency County Hospital of Craiova, Romania. The following series of serum lipid parameters were recorded: lipemia, total cholesterol and cholesteryl ester, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol and triglyceride (TG) values. Statistical analysis of these parameters was performed using the ANOVA test followed by Tukey multiple comparison tests to compare replicate means; p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: We observed significantly lower values for serum lipids (543.5 and 549.37 mg/dl in the HBV and HCV cirrhosis subgroups, compared with 649.9 mg/dl in controls), total cholesterol (143.6 and 147.9 vs. 198.0 mg/dl, respectively), cholesteryl esters (83.6 and 80, compared to 147.9 mg/dl, respectively), LDL cholesterol (91.6 and 88.5 vs. 132.4 mg/dl) in both cirrhosis groups when compared with controls (p < 0.001), as well as HDL cholesterol (32.1 and 36.9 vs. 47.3 mg/dl, p < 0.05). However, TG and VLDL cholesterol values of controls and cirrhosis groups were similar (p > 0.05). We did not register any differences between the two cirrhosis groups (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Our data showed that both HCV and HBV cirrhosis severely impaired liver lipid metabolism. Late stages of the disease resulted in a pseudonormalization of VLDL cholesterol and TG values.
Some Banach spaces of Dirichlet series

The Hardy spaces of Dirichlet series denoted by ${\cal H}^p$ ($p\ge1$) have been studied in [12] when p = 2 and in [3] for the general case. In this paper we study some Lp-generalizations of spaces of Dirichlet series, particularly two families of Bergman spaces denoted ${\cal A}^p$ and ${\cal B}^p$. We recover classical properties of spaces of analytic functions: boundedness of point evaluation, embeddings between these spaces and "Littlewood-Paley" formulas when p = 2. We also show that the ${\cal B}^p$ spaces have properties similar to the classical Bergman spaces of the unit disk while the ${\cal A}^p$ spaces have a different behavior.
Exact Solitary Water Waves with Vorticity Vera Mikyoung Hur

The solitary water wave problem is to find steady free surface waves which approach a constant level of depth in the far field. The main result is the existence of a family of exact solitary waves of small amplitude for an arbitrary vorticity. Each solution has a supercritical parameter value and decays exponentially at infinity. The proof is based on a generalized implicit function theorem of the Nash–Moser type. The first approximation to the surface profile is given by the “KdV” equation. With a supercritical value of the surface tension coefficient, a family of small amplitude solitary waves of depression with subcritical parameter values is constructed for an arbitrary vorticity.
Achieving high performance via co-designed virtual machines

A virtual machine (VM) uses software to support a virtual instruction set architecture on a hardware platjonn executing a native instruction set. By co-designing the hardware and software elements of a VM, and by using an implementation-dependent native instruction set, there will be many new opportunities for improved performance and flexibility. Because the hardware-supported instruction set is implementation dependent, performance optimizations can be more easily passed from software through to hardware, and performance feedback infonnation can be more easily passed from hardware up to the software. Furthermore, optimizations can be performed by software dynamically, as the program runs. A codesigned virtual machine may include adaptive hardware Performance features, continuous hardware performance feedback, and on-the-fly optimizing re-compilation by the VM. Hardware and software can cooperate in jinding instruction level parallelism across large blocks of dynamic instructions, and can eflciently implement of a number of advanced microarchitecture techniques involving control independence, prediction, speculation, and cache hierarchy management.
THE DIVISION METHOD FOR SUBSPECTRA OF SELF-ADJOINT DIFFERENTIAL VECTOR-OPERATORS

We discuss the division method for subspectra which appears to be one of the key approaches in the study of spectral properties of self-adjoint differential vector-operators, that is operators generated as a direct sum of self-adjoint extensions on an Everitt-Markus-Zettl multi-interval system. In the current work we show how the division method may be applied to obtain the ordered spectral representation and Fourier-like decompositions for self-adjoint differential vector-operators, after which we obtain the analytical decompositions for the measurable (relative to a spectral parameter) generalized eigenfunctions of a self-adjoint differential vector-operator.
Study of histopathological features and proliferation markers in cases of Wilms’ tumor

Context: The spectrum of pediatric renal tumors is different from adult renal tumors, and Wilms’ tumor (WT) forms the majority. The histological type and clinicopathological staging are the two important prognostic parameters. The role of newer prognostic factors is not clear. Aims: This study was performed to analyze the histopathological spectrum of pediatric renal tumors and to study the expression of proliferation markers (Ki-67 and p53) in WT and correlate its expression in epithelial and blastema components in different stages. Materials and Methods: Twenty-seven cases of pediatric renal tumors were collected over 2 years. Hematoxylin-eosin staining was used for diagnosis. Immunostaining was performed for Ki-67 and p53. Ki-67 proliferation index (PI) and p53 expression were determined in each case and for the epithelial and blastema components separately. Statistical Analysis and Results: We had 20 cases of WT (74.1%), three cases of mesoblastic nephroma (11.1%), three cases of clear cell sarcoma (11.1%) and one case of rhabdoid tumor (3.7%). It was observed that the PI of the epithelial component (57.2%) was significantly higher than that of blastema (39.53%) in all stages. The PI in Stage II is significantly higher than that in Stage I. Statistical analysis could not be performed in Stages III and IV due to the small number of cases. p53 expression did not show any significant difference in the epithelial and blastema components. There was also no significant difference between the stages. Conclusion: In this study, we found the differences between PI of different tissue components of WT, with the epithelial component having a higher PI, which correlated with the stage of advancement of the disease.
Heat Shock Protein 27 Plays a Pivotal Role in Myofibroblast Differentiation and in the Development of Bleomycin-Induced Pulmonary Fibrosis

Heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) is a member of the small molecular weight HSP family. Upon treatment with transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1), we observed upregulation of HSP27 along with that of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), a marker of myofibroblast differentiation, in cultured human and mouse lung fibroblasts. Furthermore, by using siRNA knockdown, we demonstrated that HSP27 was involved in cell survival and upregulation of fibronectin, osteopontin (OPN) and type 1 collagen, all functional markers of myofibroblast differentiation, in TGF-β1-treated MRC-5 cells. In lung tissues of bleomycin-treated mice, HSP27 was strongly upregulated and substantially co-localized with α-SMA, OPN and type I collagen but not with proSP-C (a marker of type II alveolar epithelial cells), E-cadherin (a marker of epithelial cells) or F4/80 (a marker of macrophages). A similar co-localization of HSP27 and α-SMA was observed in lung tissues of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Furthermore, airway delivery of HSP27 siRNA effectively suppressed bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice. Collectively, our findings indicate that HSP27 is critically involved in myofibroblast differentiation of lung fibroblasts and may be a promising therapeutic target for lung fibrotic diseases.
Are New Neurons Formed in the Brains of Adult Mammals?

In an autoradiographic investigation, the production of brain lesions in rats was combined with intracranial injection of thymidine-H3. Nuclei of numerous glia cells were found labeled in brain regions associated with the traumatized areas. In addition, some neurons and neuroblasts showed labeling, suggesting the possibility of proliferation of neurons in adult rats.
Significance of Flyash in Producing Durable Eco-Friendly Concrete with Corrosion Inhibitor

The production of Portland cement, the principal binder in concrete, is a major contributor for 6-8% of human generated green house gases that are involved in global warming and climate change. But when flyash, which is the residue from coal-fired power plants is used as partial replacement of cement in concrete, results in the reduction of environmental load and concrete production cost besides enhancing strength and protection of embedded steel in concrete from corrosive agents. This paper investigates the influence of 30% replacement of cement by flyash on the strength and corrosion resistive properties of concrete along with Triethanolamine as corrosion inhibiting admixture at the dosage of 1%, 2%, 3% and 4% by weight of cement. The specimens were tested for compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength and bond strength. The resistance to corrosion is evaluated based on the performance of the concrete for the penetration of chloride ions by means of impressed current technique, half cell potential measurement and weight loss method. From the results obtained, it is found that flyash blended cement concrete increases the strength, reduces the permeability by the pozzolonic reaction, offers very good resistance against chemical attack and increases corrosion resistance with the addition of inhibitors.
Design improvements and dynamic characterization on fluidic elastomer actuators for a soft robotic snake

This paper addresses the design and dynamic analysis of a new generation of fluidic elastomer actuators (FEAs) that offer bidirectional bending developed as motion segments of a pressure-operated soft robotic snake. Our prior work on FEAs has identified a number of limitations, namely a high center of gravity, narrow base, slow dynamics, and a small range of pressure inputs. We developed two versions of FEAs based on an improved design concept with different geometric parameters and characterized their dynamic response under a custom visual tracking system. Compared with the previous actuators, the FEAs developed in this work offer robust operation, safety at larger input pressure values, faster response, lower center of gravity and a flat bottom for better compatibility for snake-like undulatory locomotion.
Genetic Polymorphisms Affect Mouse and Human Trace Amine-Associated Receptor 1 Function

Methamphetamine (MA) and neurotransmitter precursors and metabolites such as tyramine, octopamine, and β-phenethylamine stimulate the G protein-coupled trace amine-associated receptor 1 (TAAR1). TAAR1 has been implicated in human conditions including obesity, schizophrenia, depression, fibromyalgia, migraine, and addiction. Additionally TAAR1 is expressed on lymphocytes and astrocytes involved in inflammation and response to infection. In brain, TAAR1 stimulation reduces synaptic dopamine availability and alters glutamatergic function. TAAR1 is also expressed at low levels in heart, and may regulate cardiovascular tone. Taar1 knockout mice orally self-administer more MA than wild type and are insensitive to its aversive effects. DBA/2J (D2) mice express a non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in Taar1 that does not respond to MA, and D2 mice are predisposed to high MA intake, compared to C57BL/6 (B6) mice. Here we demonstrate that endogenous agonists stimulate the recombinant B6 mouse TAAR1, but do not activate the D2 mouse receptor. Progeny of the B6XD2 (BxD) family of recombinant inbred (RI) strains have been used to characterize the genetic etiology of diseases, but contrary to expectations, BXDs derived 30–40 years ago express only the functional B6 Taar1 allele whereas some more recently derived BXD RI strains express the D2 allele. Data indicate that the D2 mutation arose subsequent to derivation of the original RIs. Finally, we demonstrate that SNPs in human TAAR1 alter its function, resulting in expressed, but functional, sub-functional and non-functional receptors. Our findings are important for identifying a predisposition to human diseases, as well as for developing personalized treatment options.
AM Eye Movement Patterns and Driving Performance

In the current study we examined the relationship between drivers’ eye movement patterns and driving performance in a dual-task driving paradigm. Drivers performed two tasks in a driving simulator. In a car following task, drivers were asked to maintain a constant headway from a leading vehicle as it varied its speed. In the second task (light detection task), drivers tried to detect changes in peripheral traffic lights. The performance in the car following task was measured with headway distance and RMS, and the performance in the light detection task was measured with response time and accuracy. We found that the frequency of fixations, fixation duration and spatial distribution of fixations were significantly correlated with drivers’ performance in the driving tasks. Specifically, driving performance improved with fewer eye movements, longer fixation durations and smaller spatial distribution of fixations.
BAYDA: Software for Bayesian Classification and Feature Selection

BAYDA is a software package for flexible data analysis in predictive data mining tasks. The mathematical model underlying the program is based on a simple Bayesian network, the Naive Bayes classifier. It is well-known that the Naive Bayes classifier performs well in predictive data mining tasks, when compared to approaches using more complex models. However, the model makes strong independence assumptions that are frequently violated in practice. For this reason, the BAYDA software also provides a feature selection scheme which can be used for analyzing the problem domain, and for improving the prediction accuracy of the models constructed by BAYDA. The scheme is based on a novel Bayesian feature selection criterion introduced in this paper. The suggested criterion is inspired by the Cheeseman-Stutz approximation for computing the marginal likelihood of Bayesian networks with hidden variables. The empirical results with several widely-used data sets demonstrate that the automated Bayesian feature selection scheme can dramatically decrease the number of relevant features, and lead to substantial improvements in prediction accuracy.
Getting the biggest birch for the bang: restoring and expanding upland birchwoods in the Scottish Highlands by managing red deer

High deer populations threaten the conservation value of woodlands and grasslands, but predicting the success of deer culling, in terms of allowing vegetation to recover, is difficult. Numerical simulation modeling is one approach to gain insight into the outcomes of management scenarios. We develop a spatially explicit model to predict the responses of Betula spp. to red deer (Cervus elaphus) and land management in the Scottish Highlands. Our model integrates a Bayesian stochastic stage-based matrix model within the framework of a widely used individual-based forest simulation model, using data collected along spatial and temporal gradients in deer browsing. By initializing our model with the historical spatial locations of trees, we find that densities of juvenile trees (<3 m tall) predicted after 9–13 years closely match counts observed in the field. This is among the first tests of the accuracy of a dynamical simulation model for predicting the responses of tree regeneration to herbivores. We then test the relative importance of deer browsing, ground cover vegetation, and seed availability in facilitating landscape-level birch regeneration using simulations in which we varied these three variables. We find that deer primarily control transitions of birch to taller (>3 m) height tiers over 30 years, but regeneration also requires suitable ground cover for seedling establishment. Densities of adult seed sources did not influence regeneration, nor did an active management scenario where we altered the spatial configuration of adults by creating “woodland islets”. Our results show that managers interested in maximizing tree regeneration cannot simply reduce deer densities but must also improve ground cover for seedling establishment, and the model we develop now enables managers to quantify explicitly how much both these factors need to be altered. More broadly, our findings emphasize the need for land managers to consider the impacts of large herbivores rather than their densities.
Indentation of elastic solids with rigid cones

Experimental investigations of the response of several elastic solids, carried out using an instrumented indentation machine, are described. These solids include a natural rubber compound, neoprene, and three different compositions of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) when they were indented with tungsten carbide cones of included angles of 60°, 90°, 120° and 136°. It is shown that, except for the case of the 60° cone loading on to the blocks of PDMS (1 : 10) and PDMS (1 : 20), the indentation load versus indenter displacement behaviour of all the elastic solids corresponding to all the conical indenters is well fitted by the 1965 Sneddon theory for frictionless indentations. Video camera sequences of the process of indentation by cones of different included angles into the blocks of PDMS (1 : 10) and PDMS (1 : 20) have also been taken from which measurements of the elastic deformation of the indented surface have been made. It is shown that the magnitude of the elastic deformation of the indented surface clo.
Enhancement of the buckling strength of glass beams by means of lateral restraints

New material applications and transparency are desired by contemporary architects. Its superb transparency and high strength make glass a very suitable building material -in spite of its brittleness- even for primary load bearing structures. Currently we will focus on load bearing glass beams, subjected to different loading types. Since glass beams have a very slender, rectangular cross section, they are sensitive to lateral torsional buckling. Glass beams fail under a critical buckling load at stresses that lie far below the theoretical simple bending strength, due to the complex combination of torsion and out-of-plane bending, which characterises the instability phenomenon. The critical load can be increased considerably by preventing the upper rim from moving out of the beam`s plane. Different boundary conditions are examined for different loading types. The load carrying capacity of glass beams can be increased three times and more using relatively simple, cheap lateral restraints.