Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Laser Shock Peening: Modeling, Simulations, and Applications

Laser shock peening (LSP) is a surface treatment process to improve surface integrity and fabricate micro surface structures. The mechanism of LSP is shown in Figure 1. LSP is a cold mechanical process where pressure waves caused by expanding plasma plastically deform the surface of a material. LSP uses a thin layer of ablative material that is opaque to the laser. The opaque ablative material, typically black spray paint or tape, is used as a sacrificial layer in the early study by Fairland and Clauer (Fairland & Clauer, 1976). The sacrificial layer also minimizes undesirable thermal effects on the surface caused by the laser. The laser partially vaporizes the ablative layer to form high pressure plasma. The plasma, confined by a thin layer of water film, expands rapidly resulting in a recoiling pressure wave on the order of GPa reported by Fairland et al. (Fairland et al., 1972), Fabbro et al. (Fabbro et al., 1990), Masse and Barreau (Masse & Barreau, 1995), Berthe et al. (Berthe et al., 1997), Fan et al. (Fan et al., 2005), Warren, et al. (Warren et al., 2008), and Caslaru, et al. (Caslaru et al., 2008). The pressure wave is the cold mechanical process that plastically deforms the surface. The plasma-induced shock pressure on the order of GPa can be much larger than the dynamic yield strength of the work material. Once the peak pressure exceeds material yield strength, the transient shock pressure causes severe plastic deformation, refined grain size, compressive residual stresses, and increased hardness at the surface and in the subsurface. As a result, the mechanical properties on the workpiece surface are enhanced to improve the performance of fatigue, wear, corrosion and foreign object damage. Besides producing favorable surface integrity, LSP can also be used to fabricate various micro surface structures such as dent arrays using an automatic x-y positioning system. The micro surface structures may have various functions. For example a laser peened dent array can act as lubricant reservoirs to reduce coefficient of friction in bearings and to reduce flow drag of compressor blades. Just due to the transient nature of shocking pressure, real time in-situ measurement of laser/material interaction is very challenging. A numerical simulation method may provide an ideal tool to shed light on the process mechanics and resultant surface integrity.
Clinical utility of guanfacine extended release in the treatment of ADHD in children and adolescents

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common psychiatric illness in children and adolescents. Several stimulant medications, such as methylphenidate and amphetamine derivatives, are available to treat ADHD in pediatric patients. Nonstimulant medications are more preferred by some parents, other caregivers, and patients because they lack the abuse potential of stimulant medications. In the US, one available nonstimulant option is guanfacine extended release (XR). As a selective α2A adrenergic receptor, guanfacine acts on the central noradrenergic pathways and cortical noradrenergic targets to improve working memory and attention. The XR formulation of guanfacine, compared with the immediate-release formulation, is more effective for the long-term management of ADHD and is associated with fewer adverse effects. Available data also indicate that guanfacine XR is superior to atomoxetine and is as effective as the nonselective α2 adrenergic receptor agonist, clonidine XR. The most common adverse effects associated with guanfacine XR are somnolence, fatigue, bradycardia, and hypotension. Somnolence is the most often cited reason for discontinuation. Guanfacine XR is also labeled for use as an adjuvant to stimulant treatment for ADHD. A similar profile of adverse effects as reported with monotherapy is reported when guanfacine XR is “added on” to stimulant therapy with somnolence as the most commonly reported adverse event. This review discusses the clinical efficacy and patient preference of guanfacine XR based on available published data on the safety, relative effectiveness, and tolerance of this medication to treat ADHD.
Monitoring path nearest neighbor in road networks

This paper addresses the problem of monitoring the k nearest neighbors to a dynamically changing path in road networks. Given a destination where a user is going to, this new query returns the k-NN with respect to the shortest path connecting the destination and the user's current location, and thus provides a list of nearest candidates for reference by considering the whole coming journey. We name this query the k-Path Nearest Neighbor query (k-PNN). As the user is moving and may not always follow the shortest path, the query path keeps changing. The challenge of monitoring the k-PNN for an arbitrarily moving user is to dynamically determine the update locations and then refresh the k-PNN efficiently. We propose a three-phase Best-first Network Expansion (BNE) algorithm for monitoring the k-PNN and the corresponding shortest path. In the searching phase, the BNE finds the shortest path to the destination, during which a candidate set that guarantees to include the k-PNN is generated at the same time. Then in the verification phase, a heuristic algorithm runs for examining candidates' exact distances to the query path, and it achieves significant reduction in the number of visited nodes. The monitoring phase deals with computing update locations as well as refreshing the k-PNN in different user movements. Since determining the network distance is a costly process, an expansion tree and the candidate set are carefully maintained by the BNE algorithm, which can provide efficient update on the shortest path and the k-PNN results. Finally, we conduct extensive experiments on real road networks and show that our methods achieve satisfactory performance.
Toward a Dynamic Vertical Climbing Robot

Simple mathematical models or ‘templates’ of locomotion have been effective tools in understanding how animals move and have inspired and guided the design of robots that emulate those behaviors. This paper describes a recently proposed biologically-based template for dynamic vertical climbing, and evaluates the feasibility of adapting it to build a vertical ‘running’ robot. We present the results a simulation study suggesting that appropriate mechanical and control alterations to the template result in fast stable climbing that preserves the characteristic body motions and foot forces found in the template model and in animals. These design changes should also allow the robot to operate with commercially available actuators and in the same power to weight range as other running and climbing robots.
Understanding latent sector errors and how to protect against them

Latent sector errors (LSEs) refer to the situation where particular sectors on a drive become inaccessible. LSEs are a critical factor in data reliability, since a single LSE can lead to data loss when encountered during RAID reconstruction after a disk failure or in systems without redundancy. LSEs happen at a significant rate in the field [Bairavasundaram et al. 2007], and are expected to grow more frequent with new drive technologies and increasing drive capacities. While two approaches, data scrubbing and intra-disk redundancy, have been proposed to reduce data loss due to LSEs, none of these approaches has been evaluated on real field data. This article makes two contributions. We provide an extended statistical analysis of latent sector errors in the field, specifically from the view point of how to protect against LSEs. In addition to providing interesting insights into LSEs, we hope the results (including parameters for models we fit to the data) will help researchers and practitioners without access to data in driving their simulations or analysis of LSEs. Our second contribution is an evaluation of five different scrubbing policies and five different intra-disk redundancy schemes and their potential in protecting against LSEs. Our study includes schemes and policies that have been suggested before, but have never been evaluated on field data, as well as new policies that we propose based on our analysis of LSEs in the field.
New Partners in Regulation of Gene Expression: The Enhancer of Trithorax and Polycomb Corto Interacts with Methylated Ribosomal Protein L12 Via Its Chromodomain

Chromodomains are found in many regulators of chromatin structure, and most of them recognize methylated lysines on histones. Here, we investigate the role of the Drosophila melanogaster protein Corto's chromodomain. The Enhancer of Trithorax and Polycomb Corto is involved in both silencing and activation of gene expression. Over-expression of the Corto chromodomain (CortoCD) in transgenic flies shows that it is a chromatin-targeting module, critical for Corto function. Unexpectedly, mass spectrometry analysis reveals that polypeptides pulled down by CortoCD from nuclear extracts correspond to ribosomal proteins. Furthermore, real-time interaction analyses demonstrate that CortoCD binds with high affinity RPL12 tri-methylated on lysine 3. Corto and RPL12 co-localize with active epigenetic marks on polytene chromosomes, suggesting that both are involved in fine-tuning transcription of genes in open chromatin. RNA–seq based transcriptomes of wing imaginal discs over-expressing either CortoCD or RPL12 reveal that both factors deregulate large sets of common genes, which are enriched in heat-response and ribosomal protein genes, suggesting that they could be implicated in dynamic coordination of ribosome biogenesis. Chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments show that Corto and RPL12 bind hsp70 and are similarly recruited on gene body after heat shock. Hence, Corto and RPL12 could be involved together in regulation of gene transcription. We discuss whether pseudo-ribosomal complexes composed of various ribosomal proteins might participate in regulation of gene expression in connection with chromatin regulators.
Low-dose mTOR inhibition by rapamycin attenuates progression in anti-thy1-induced chronic glomerulosclerosis of the rat.

Treatment options in human mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis/sclerosis, mostly IgA nephropathy, are limited. Progressive mesangioproliferative nephropathy represents a major cause of end-stage kidney disease. The present study explores the efficacy of low-dose mTOR inhibition by rapamycin in a chronic-progressive model of mesangioproliferative glomerulosclerosis (cGS). cGS was induced by high-dose anti-thy1 antibody injection into uninephrectomized rats. Rapamycin administration (2.5 mg.kg(-1). body wt(-1)) was started 10 days after antibody injection and continued until week 20. cGS was characterized by advancing proteinuria, increased blood pressure, marked tubulointerstitial and glomerular fibrosis, cell proliferation and round cell infiltration, and impaired renal function. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U-tests were used for statistical analysis. The course of chronic anti-thy1-induced glomerulosclerosis was significantly attenuated by low-dose rapamycin treatment. In week 20, this was demonstrated by improvements in proteinuria (-38%), systolic blood pressure (-16 mmHg), tubulointerstitial and glomerular histological matrix accumulation (-61 and -24%), transforming growth factor-beta1 overexpression (-41 and -47%), collagen I deposition (-53 and -65%), cell proliferation (-90 and -76%), and leukocyte number (macrophages -52 and -53%; lymphocytes -58 and 51%), respectively. Rapamycin improved renal function as well (blood creatinine -0.68 mg/dl, urea -66.7 mg/day, and creatinine clearance +0.13 ml.min(-1). 100 g body wt(-1)). In conclusion, low-dose mTOR inhibition by rapamycin limits the progressive course of anti-thy1-induced renal disease toward chronic glomerulosclerosis, tubulointerstitial fibrosis, and renal insufficiency. Renoprotection by rapamycin involved significant beneficial effects on multiple key pathways in the progression of chronic renal disease, i.e., proteinuria, extracellular matrix accumulation, renal cell proliferation, and inflammatory cell infiltration.
Epoxidized natural rubber toughened polyamide 6/organically modified montmorillonite nanocomposites

The organically modified montmorillonite (OMMT)-filled polyamide 6 (PA6) nanocomposites were toughened with epoxidized natural rubber (ENR). The PA6, ENR (15–30 wt%) and OMMT (4 parts per hundered (phr)) were melt compounded using counterrotating twin-screw extruder followed by the injection molding. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that the OMMT platelets in PA6/ENR/OMMT nanocomposites were well dispersed. The Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra showed graft esterification reaction between PA6 and ENR during processing. It was found that the addition of ENR (up to 20% wt) increased the impact strength and elongation at break of the nanocomposites. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images revealed well-dispersed ENR particles. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results showed that the presence of ENR and OMMT had negligible effect on the glass transition of PA6 with a slight decrease in crystallization temperature and crystallinity in PA6/ENR/OMMT nanocomposites.
Weighted Strategy Logic with Boolean Goals Over One-Counter Games

Strategy Logic is a powerful specification language for expressing non-zero-sum properties of multi-player games. SL conveniently extends the logic ATL with explicit quantification and assignment of strategies. In this paper, we consider games over one-counter automata, and a quantitative extension 1cSL of SL with assertions over the value of the counter. We prove two results: we first show that, if decidable, model checking the so-called Boolean-goal fragment of 1cSL has non-elementary complexity; we actually prove the result for the Boolean-goal fragment of SL over finite-state games, which was an open question in [Mogavero et al. Reasoning about strategies: On the model-checking problem. ACM ToCL 15(4),2014]. As a first step towards proving decidability, we then show that the Boolean-goal fragment of 1cSL over one-counter games enjoys a nice periodicity property.
A discrete simulation model for assessing software project scheduling policies

Good project scheduling is an essential, but extremely hard task in software management practice. In a software project, the time needed to complete some development activity is difficult to estimate. Often, the completion of activities is delayed due to unanticipated rework which is caused by feedback in the process. In this paper, we show how process simulation can be used to support managers in finding good schedules for their software projects. We present a novel, stochastic simulation model which is tailored to the special dynamics of software projects, and which explicitly takes a scheduling strategy as input. The model represents task assignments, staff skill levels, component coupling, and rework caused by design changes. The simulation model is implemented in the ModL language of the general-purpose graphical simulation tool EXTEND. As an illustration of our simulation model, we study the performance of various list policies for a small sample project. The simulations quickly show the impact that the choice of the list policy will have on the progress and completion time of the sample project. To explain the performance difference between the list policies, we use the simulation traces to provide a detailed analysis of the task assignments which actually occur in the simulations. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Indirect Low-Intensity Ultrasonic Stimulation for Tissue Engineering

Low-intensity ultrasound (LIUS) treatment has been shown to increase mass transport, which could benefit tissue grafts during the immediate postimplant period, when blood supply to the implanted tissue is suboptimal. In this in vitro study, we investigated effects of LIUS stimulation on dye diffusion, proliferation, metabolism, and tropomyosin expression of muscle cells (C2C12) and on tissue viability and gene expression of human adipose tissue organoids. We found that LIUS increased dye diffusion within adjacent tissue culture wells and caused anisotropic diffusion patterns. This effect was confirmed by a hydrophone measurement resulting in acoustic pressure 150–341 Pa in wells. Cellular studies showed that LIUS significantly increased proliferation, metabolic activity, and expression of tropomyosin. Adipose tissue treated with LIUS showed significantly increased metabolic activity and the cells had similar morphology to normal unilocular adipocytes. Gene analysis showed that tumor necrosis factor-alpha expression (a marker for tissue damage) was significantly lower for stimulated organoids than for control groups. Our data suggests that LIUS could be a useful modality for improving graft survival in vivo.
The Analysis of Classroom Discourse: Elementary School Science Curricula Advancing Reasoning With Evidence

Students' ability to participate in scientific discourse and to appropriately use empirical evidence to support beliefs or conclusions has been consistently stated as a core goal of science education. In the present study, we analyzed the quality of scientific reasoning in elementary school science classrooms, using the Evidence-Based Reasoning (EBR) Video Framework (see Furtak, Hardy, Beinbrech, Shavelson, & Shemwell, this issue). Two data sets from six 3rd-grade and 4th-grade science classrooms drawn from class discussions on floating and sinking were analyzed for the quality of EBR, the kinds of teacher prompts, and the level of conceptual understanding in classroom discourse. We found that the majority of discourse involved unsupported claims about the scientific phenomena. Although there was a clear progression in conceptual understanding over the course of the curriculum, no consistent effects were observed in the level of EBR. There was some evidence for effects of a preceding curriculum that had focused on nature-of-science constructs on the quality of students' EBR. Moderate correlations were obtained between students' conceptual understanding and reasoning level within reasoning units. Teacher prompts for providing support for conclusions and inferences were associated with higher reasoning levels, emphasizing the role of teachers in promoting a culture of productive use of evidence in classroom discourse. The quality of the EBR Video Framework as an assessment tool is discussed.
The security of the FDH variant of Chaum's undeniable signature scheme

In this paper, a new kind of adversarial goal called forge-and-impersonate in undeniable signature schemes is introduced. Note that forgeability does not necessarily imply impersonation ability. The security of the full-domain hash (FDH) variant of Chaum's undeniable signature scheme is then classified according to three dimensions, the goal of adversaries, the attacks, and the zero-knowledge (ZK) level of confirmation and disavowal protocols. Each security is then related to some well-known computational problem. In particular, the security of the FDH variant of Chaum's scheme with noninteractive zero-knowledge (NIZK) protocol confirmation and disavowal protocols is proven to be equivalent to the computational Diffie-Hellman (CDH) problem, as opposed to the gap Diffie-Hellman (GDH) problem as claimed by Okamoto and Pointcheval.
Growth and ageing of feral Xenopus laevis (Daudin) in South Wales, U.K.

A feral population of African clawed frogs Xenopus laevis from a small pond in South Wales was sampled continuously for 2 years to assess morphometric growth. Toe-clips taken at intervals over a 4-year period were found to contain lines of arrested growth (LAG) which corresponded to each consecutive winter. The first toe-clips revealed a population structure within the pond consisting of a dominant cohort of frogs with one LAG that metamorphosed in 1993, and a few older individuals. Subsequent toe-clips in 1996 and 1998 gave two and four more LAG, respectively. Morphometric growth was found to be restricted to a short growing season, significant differences in the growth rates of males and females being first detected in their third growth season. Reproductively active frogs were still within their initial period of growth, suggesting that Xenopus laevis does not conform to the standard energy resource allocation mechanisms of typical ectotherms.
Leisure activities and the risk of dementia in the elderly.

BACKGROUND Participation in leisure activities has been associated with a lower risk of dementia. It is unclear whether increased participation in leisure activities lowers the risk of dementia or participation in leisure activities declines during the preclinical phase of dementia. METHODS We examined the relation between leisure activities and the risk of dementia in a prospective cohort of 469 subjects older than 75 years of age who resided in the community and did not have dementia at base line. We examined the frequency of participation in leisure activities at enrollment and derived cognitive-activity and physical-activity scales in which the units of measure were activity-days per week. Cox proportional-hazards analysis was used to evaluate the risk of dementia according to the base-line level of participation in leisure activities, with adjustment for age, sex, educational level, presence or absence of chronic medical illnesses, and base-line cognitive status. RESULTS Over a median follow-up period of 5.1 years, dementia developed in 124 subjects (Alzheimer's disease in 61 subjects, vascular dementia in 30, mixed dementia in 25, and other types of dementia in 8). Among leisure activities, reading, playing board games, playing musical instruments, and dancing were associated with a reduced risk of dementia. A one-point increment in the cognitive-activity score was significantly associated with a reduced risk of dementia (hazard ratio, 0.93 [95 percent confidence interval, 0.90 to 0.97]), but a one-point increment in the physical-activity score was not (hazard ratio, 1.00). The association with the cognitive-activity score persisted after the exclusion of the subjects with possible preclinical dementia at base line. Results were similar for Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. In linear mixed models, increased participation in cognitive activities at base line was associated with reduced rates of decline in memory. CONCLUSIONS Participation in leisure activities is associated with a reduced risk of dementia, even after adjustment for base-line cognitive status and after the exclusion of subjects with possible preclinical dementia. Controlled trials are needed to assess the protective effect of cognitive leisure activities on the risk of dementia.