Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The study of photo-thermal lensing system and its applications

The high quality optical films in coatings with low absorption and good environmental stability are required for the development of high power lasers, because even slightest absorbing defects could lead to material’s breakdown[1]. Thus, a nondestructive absorption measurement is required to measure the absorption of defects. Reflection-transmission method is the simplest measurement to measure the absorption of optical films. This indirect method is good for absorption values down to ∼ 0.1%. However, typical high quality optical coatings have absorption values measured in parts per million (ppm). In this thesis, the photo-thermal lens setup provides another way to measure the change in the sample related to heating with sensitivity up to 10−6. This technique is a pump-probe technique which depends on a change in an optical property measured by a weak probe laser that results from heating by a strong pump. The photo-thermal setup is used to measure absorption with time resolution and identify defects in optical coatings.
The ILMT-s2s Corpus ― A Multimodal Interlingual Map Task Corpus

This paper presents the multimodal Interlingual Map Task Corpus (ILMT-s2s corpus) collected at Trinity College Dublin, and discuss some of the issues related to the collection and analysis of the data. The corpus design is inspired by the HCRC Map Task Corpus which was initially designed to support the investigation of linguistic phenomena, and has been the focus of a variety of studies of communicative behaviour. The simplicity of the task, and the complexity of phenomena it can elicit, make the map task an ideal object of study. Although there are studies that used replications of the map task to investigate communication in computer mediated tasks, this ILMT-s2s corpus is, to the best of our knowledge, the first investigation of communicative behaviour in the presence of three additional “filters”: Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Machine Translation (MT) and Text To Speech (TTS) synthesis, where the instruction giver and the instruction follower speak different languages. This paper details the data collection setup and completed annotation of the ILMT-s2s corpus, and outlines preliminary results obtained from the data.
Effects of parental emotional warmth on the relationship between regional gray matter volume and depression-related personality traits

ABSTRACT The depression-related personality trait is associated with the severity of patients’ current depressive symptoms and with the vulnerability to depression within the nonclinical groups. However, little is known about the anatomical structure associated with the depression-related personality traits within the nonclinical sample. Parenting behavior is associated with the depression symptoms; however, whether or not parenting behavior influence the neural basis of the depression-related personality traits is unclear. Thus in current study, first, we used voxel-based morphometry to identify the brain regions underlying individual differences in depression-related personality traits, as measured by the revised Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Personality Inventory, in a large sample of young healthy adults. Second, we use mediation analysis to investigate the relationship between parenting behavior and neural basis of depression-related personality traits. The results revealed that depression-related personality traits were positively correlated with gray matter volume mainly in medial frontal gyrus (MFG) that is implicated in the self-referential processing and emotional regulation. Furthermore, parental emotional warmth acted as a mediational mechanism underlying the association between the MFG volume and the depression-related personality trait. Together, our findings suggested that the family environment might play an important role in the acquisition and process of the depression-related personality traits.
The Right Dorsal Premotor Mosaic: Organization, Functions, and Connectivity

Abstract The right dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) of humans has been reported to be involved in a broad range of motor and cognitive functions. We explored the basis of this behavioral heterogeneity by performing a connectivity‐based parcellation using meta‐analytic approach applied to PMd coactivations. We compared our connectivity‐based parcellation results with parcellations obtained through resting‐state functional connectivity and probabilistic diffusion tractography. Functional connectivity profiles and behavioral decoding of the resulting PMd subregions allowed characterizing their respective behavior profile. These procedures divided the right PMd into 5 distinct subregions that formed a cognitive‐motor gradient along a rostro‐caudal axis. In particular, we found 1) a rostral subregion functionally connected with prefrontal cortex, which likely supports high‐level cognitive processes, such as working memory, 2) a central subregion showing a mixed behavioral profile and functional connectivity to parietal regions of the dorsal attention network, and 3) a caudal subregion closely integrated with the motor system. Additionally, we found 4) a dorsal subregion, preferentially related to hand movements and connected to both cognitive and motor regions, and 5) a ventral subregion, whose functional profile fits the concept of an eye movement‐related field. In conclusion, right PMd may be considered as a functional mosaic formed by 5 subregions.
Defining a Critical Weld Dilution to Avoid Solidification Cracking in Aluminum

Al-Mg-Si alloys are known to be highly susceptible to solidification cracking except when using an appropriate filler metal (e.g., 4043 or 5356), although the amount of dilution required to avoid cracking has never been a well-defined quantity. The aim of the present study is to determine a relationship between filler metal dilution, local strain rate conditions, and cracking susceptibility. Making use of the controlled tensile weldability (CTW) test and local strain extensometer measurements, a boundary has been established between crack and no-crack conditions for different local strain rates and dilution amounts, holding all other welding parameters constant. This boundary, presented in the form of a critical strain rate-dilution map, defines the critical amount of 4043 filler metal required to avoid solidification cracking when arc welding 6060 aluminum, depending upon local strain rate.
Healthy Neighborhoods: Walkability and Air Pollution

Background The built environment may influence health in part through the promotion of physical activity and exposure to pollution. To date, no studies have explored interactions between neighborhood walkability and air pollution exposure. Methods We estimated concentrations of nitric oxide (NO), a marker for direct vehicle emissions), and ozone (O3) and a neighborhood walkability score, for 49,702 (89% of total) postal codes in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. NO concentrations were estimated from a land-use regression model, O3 was estimated from ambient monitoring data; walkability was calculated based on geographic attributes such as land-use mix, street connectivity, and residential density. Results All three attributes exhibit an urban–rural gradient, with high walkability and NO concentrations, and low O3 concentrations, near the city center. Lower-income areas tend to have higher NO concentrations and walkability and lower O3 concentrations. Higher-income areas tend to have lower pollution (NO and O3). “Sweet-spot” neighborhoods (low pollution, high walkability) are generally located near but not at the city center and are almost exclusively higher income. Policy implications Increased concentration of activities in urban settings yields both health costs and benefits. Our research identifies neighborhoods that do especially well (and especially poorly) for walkability and air pollution exposure. Work is needed to ensure that the poor do not bear an undue burden of urban air pollution and that neighborhoods designed for walking, bicycling, or mass transit do not adversely affect resident’s exposure to air pollution. Analyses presented here could be replicated in other cities and tracked over time to better understand interactions among neighborhood walkability, air pollution exposure, and income level.
Global Estimates of Ambient Fine Particulate Matter Concentrations from Satellite-Based Aerosol Optical Depth: Development and Application

Background Epidemiologic and health impact studies of fine particulate matter with diameter < 2.5 μm (PM2.5) are limited by the lack of monitoring data, especially in developing countries. Satellite observations offer valuable global information about PM2.5 concentrations. Objective In this study, we developed a technique for estimating surface PM2.5 concentrations from satellite observations. Methods We mapped global ground-level PM2.5 concentrations using total column aerosol optical depth (AOD) from the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and MISR (Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite instruments and coincident aerosol vertical profiles from the GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model. Results We determined that global estimates of long-term average (1 January 2001 to 31 December 2006) PM2.5 concentrations at approximately 10 km × 10 km resolution indicate a global population-weighted geometric mean PM2.5 concentration of 20 μg/m3. The World Health Organization Air Quality PM2.5 Interim Target-1 (35 μg/m3 annual average) is exceeded over central and eastern Asia for 38% and for 50% of the population, respectively. Annual mean PM2.5 concentrations exceed 80 μg/m3 over eastern China. Our evaluation of the satellite-derived estimate with ground-based in situ measurements indicates significant spatial agreement with North American measurements (r = 0.77; slope = 1.07; n = 1057) and with noncoincident measurements elsewhere (r = 0.83; slope = 0.86; n = 244). The 1 SD of uncertainty in the satellite-derived PM2.5 is 25%, which is inferred from the AOD retrieval and from aerosol vertical profile errors and sampling. The global population-weighted mean uncertainty is 6.7 μg/m3. Conclusions Satellite-derived total-column AOD, when combined with a chemical transport model, provides estimates of global long-term average PM2.5 concentrations.
Life Stress and Health

Life stress is a central construct in many models of human health and disease. The present article reviews research on stress and health, with a focus on (a) how life stress has been conceptualized and measured over time, (b) recent evidence linking stress and disease, and (c) mechanisms that might underlie these effects. Emerging from this body of work is evidence that stress is involved in the development, maintenance, or exacerbation of several mental and physical health conditions, including asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, anxiety disorders, depression, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS, stroke, and certain types of cancer. Stress has also been implicated in accelerated biological aging and premature mortality. These effects have been studied most commonly using self-report checklist measures of life stress exposure, although interview-based approaches provide a more comprehensive assessment of individuals’ exposure to stress. Most recently, online systems like the Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN) have been developed for assessing lifetime stress exposure, and such systems may provide important new information to help advance our understanding of how stressors occurring over the life course get embedded in the brain and body to affect lifespan health.
Eukaryotic aspects of translation initiation brought into focus

In all organisms, mRNA-directed protein synthesis is catalysed by ribosomes. Although the basic aspects of translation are preserved in all kingdoms of life, important differences are found in the process of translation initiation, which is rate-limiting and the most important step for translation regulation. While great strides had been taken towards a complete structural understanding of the initiation of translation in eubacteria, our understanding of the eukaryotic process, which includes numerous eukaryotic-specific initiation factors, was until recently limited owing to a lack of structural information. In this review, we discuss recent results in the field that provide an increasingly complete molecular description of the eukaryotic initiation process. The structural snapshots obtained using a range of methods now provide insights into the architecture of the initiation complex, start-codon recognition by the initiator tRNA and the process of subunit joining. Future advances will require both higher-resolution insights into previously characterized complexes and mapping of initiation factors that control translation on an additional level by interacting only peripherally or transiently with ribosomal subunits. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Perspectives on the ribosome’.
Microstructural Model of the Collagen Fibril using Finite Element Method

The tendon is the connective tissues that attach the muscles to bones. It plays an important role in the mechanics of the articulation because the tendon transmits the tensile force from the muscle to the correspondent bone. Even though the tendons are designed to support different loading conditions, it generally accepted that mechanical loading plays the principal role in the development of tendinopathies. The mechanical properties of the tendon have been studied for many years; however, the mechanisms associated with the response at the microscopical scale are largely unknown. In the present work a computational structural model was developed to study the failure mechanics of the tendon fibril. The proposed model was implemented using finite element methodology (FEM). The mechanical properties of the components of the structure (collagen molecule, non-covalent bonds and crosslinks) are modeled based on the results obtained from molecular simulations available in the literature. In particular, the failure mechanisms of each element were implemented. The different components of the fibril were modeled separately and validated. The geometry of the fibril is based on the 2D Hodge-Petruska model. An automatic tool was developed to assembly the structure of the fibril, in that way different dimensions of the fibril could be modeled. To assess the accuracy and numerical stability of the simulations, a parametric study of the stabilization techniques used was performed. The results of this analysis show that the inclusion of the damage properties in the structure cause convergence difficulties and the values of the parameters of the numerical stabilization vary between models. Regardless, it was possible to analyze the mechanical behavior of the fibril. Different models were created and tested under tensile loading conditions. First, an analysis of the effect of the dimension on the response of the fibril was performed. The results show that the stress-stain response of the different dimension of the fibril is similar until the accumulation of the damage of the non-covalent bonds causes a change of the stiffness in the fibril. Then, the response varies according to the geometry and the crosslinks density. Second, a tensile test on a fibril with higher dimension was simulated. The results show similar responses to the experimental results of (Svensson et al., 2013). It was found that at small strain regimes the mechanical behavior of the fibril is dictated by the response of the non-covalent interactions, while at higher strains regimes, the stiffness of the structure is determined by the crosslinks, and shows a more rigid response. Finally, the model shows that the accumulation of the plastic deformation of the molecules at high strains leads to a brittle failure of the fibril.
Light and water are not simple conditions: fine tuning of animal housing in male C57BL/6 mice

Abstract While animal housing conditions are highly controlled and standardized between different laboratories, there are still many subtle differences that unavoidably influence the host organisms and, consequently, interlaboratory reproducibility. Here, we investigated the physiological and immunological consequences between two light/dark cycle (LDC) lengths (14-h/10-h vs. 12-h/12-h LDC) and two commonly used forms of drinking water (acidified drinking water (AW) versus normal tap water (NW)) in single-housed (SH) mice. Our results indicate that SH mice bred under a 12-h/12-h LDC and NW at the supplier’s facility showed increased basal morning plasma corticosterone (CORT) levels even 4 weeks after arrival at our animal facility employing a 14-h/10-h LDC and AW. This effect was even more pronounced two weeks after arrival and had abated after 8 weeks. In agreement, increased plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), adrenal in vitro ACTH sensitivity, as well as relative and absolute adrenal weight normalized during this 8-week exposure to the novel and unfamiliar 14-h/10-h LDC and AW. Employment of a 12-h/12-h LDC in our facility completely abrogated the CORT-elevating effects of the 14-h/10-h LDC, despite these animals drinking AW. When both the water and light conditions were matched to those at the supplier’s facility, we observed a further reduction in adrenal weight, increased thymus weight, and decreased pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion of isolated and anti-CD3/28-stimulated mesenteric lymph node cells. In summary, our results indicate that prolonged alteration of both the light phase and drinking water represent severe and long-lasting stressors for laboratory rodents. These findings are of general interest for all scientists obtaining their experimental animals from conventional suppliers.
A Simple Method for Estimation of Parameters in First order Systems

A simple method for estimation of parameters in first order systems with time delays is presented in this paper. The parameter estimation approach is based on a step response for the open loop system. It is shown that the estimation method does not require a complete step response, only a part of the response and the steady state value of the system before the step is applied. Further, for calculation of the time delay, it is also required that the time for the step is known.
Innovation, Financial Constraints and Relationship Lending: Evidence from Italy During the Recent Crises

Financial frictions may represent a severe obstacle to firms' innovativeness. This paper shows the existence and quantifies the effects of financial barriers to the innovation propensity of Italian companies. Employing direct measures of financial constraints and a credit-score estimated ad hoc, I find firms that suffer from financial problems to have a probability of innovating that is significantly lower than sound companies (-30%). The paper also documents the existence of a feedback-effect of innovation on firms' financial position. Results suggest that the innovative propensity of a company is further affected by the consequences that the choice to innovate has on the likelihood of facing constraints. This in turn is reflected onto a stronger depressive effect of financial constraints on innovation (-34%). Finally, the paper also provides evidence on the role of soft information in mitigating financial obstacles for innovative companies. Relationship lending is found to improve the financial condition of more opaque (small) borrowers and to reduce the overall effect of financial constraints on innovation.
Spontaneous T Cell Proliferation: A Physiologic Process to Create and Maintain Homeostatic Balance and Diversity of the Immune System

Naive T lymphocytes undergo heterogeneous proliferative responses when introduced into lymphopenic hosts, referred to as “homeostatic proliferation” and “spontaneous proliferation. ” Spontaneous proliferation is a unique process through which the immune system generates memory phenotype cells with increasing T cell receptors repertoire complexity. Here, the mechanisms that initiate and control spontaneous proliferation are discussed.
The dentist's role in promoting community water fluoridation: a call to action for dentists and educators.

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW Community water fluoridation is an important public health intervention that reduces oral health disparities and increases the health of the population. Promotion of its safety and effectiveness is critical to maintaining its widespread acceptance and ensuring its continued use. Dentists are a potentially important source of knowledge regarding the oral health benefits and safety of water fluoridation. However, few dentists regularly discuss fluorides, and water fluoridation in particular, with patients. The authors aim to describe and discuss the role and importance of dentists' promotion of public water fluoridation, barriers to dentists' involvement and some approaches that might influence dentists to promote water fluoridation more actively. CONCLUSIONS AND PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Ongoing promotion of fluoridation by dentists is a key factor in ensuring sustained municipal water fluoridation. However, current undergraduate dental curricula do not adequately prepare dentists for this role, and continuing dental education may be insufficient to change clinical practice. Although smoking-cessation literature can shed some light on how to proceed, changing dentists' practice behavior remains a largely unstudied topic. Dental associations are a key resource for dentists, providing information that can assist them in becoming advocates for water fluoridation.
An experimental and theoretical investigation of surface roughness of poly-jet printed parts

The present study has attempted to investigate and model surface roughness on parts printed using a poly-jet additive manufacturing system. Initially the study investigated the effect of layer thickness, local surface orientation and finish type on surface roughness in poly-jet printed parts. The study shows that the surface orientation and finish type are the major factors affecting surface roughness of poly-jet parts. Then a detailed experimental study was conducted by varying surface orientation in very close intervals to obtain the surface roughness distribution. The study reveals that surface roughness distribution for poly-jet parts is different from that obtained for parts made by other additive manufacturing processes. A detailed experimental and theoretical analysis of droplet geometry, as formed by the jetting process, and its effect on the edge profile of the polymerised layer is presented. A surface roughness prediction model is proposed based on these studies and validated using profilometric measurements.
Changes in soil carbon sequestration in Pinus massoniana forests along an urban-to-rural gradient of southern China

Urbanization is accelerating globally, causing a variety of environmental changes such as increases in air temperature, precipitation, atmospheric CO2, and nitrogen (N) deposition. However, the effects of these changes on forest soil carbon (C) sequestration remain largely unclear. Here, we used urban-to-rural environmental gradients in Guangdong Province, southern China, to address the poten- tial effects of these environmental changes on soil C seques- tration in Pinus massoniana forests. In contrast to our ex- pectations and earlier observations, soil C content in urban sites was significantly lower than that in suburban and rural sites. Lower soil C pools in urban sites were correlated with a significant decrease in fine root biomass and a potential increase in soil organic C decomposition. Variation of soil C pools was also a function of change in soil C fractions. Heavy fraction C content in urban sites was significantly lower than that in suburban and rural sites. By contrast, light fraction C content did not vary significantly along the urban-to-rural gradient. Our results suggest that urbanization-induced envi- ronmental changes may have a negative effect on forest soil C in the studied region.