Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental investigation of heat transfer characteristics on a gas-to-gas parallel flow microchannel heat exchanger

Heat transfer characteristics of a gas-to-gas parallel flow microchannel heat exchanger have been experimen- tally investigated. Temperatures and pressures at inlets and outlets of the heat exchanger are measured to obtain heat transfer rates and pressure drops. The heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics are discussed. The results show that experimental pressure drop is approximately ten times as large as theoretically estimated pressure drop. Geometric con- figuration of the heat exchanger dominates pressure drop characteristics. The conventional log-mean temperature differ- ence method and the constant wall temperature model proposed in our earlier work are applied to predict heat transfer rate of the parallel flow microchannel heat exchanger. Prediction accuracy of the log-mean temperature difference method is superior to that of the constant wall temperature model. Applicability of the log-mean temperature difference method de- pends on direction of fluid flow.
Climate change and shrinking salamanders: alternative mechanisms for changes in plethodontid salamander body size

An increasing number of studies have demonstrated relationships between climate trends and body size change of organisms. In many cases, climate might be expected to influence body size by altering thermoregulation, energetics or food availability. However, observed body size change can result from a variety of ecological processes (e.g. growth, selection, population dynamics) or imperfect observation of biological systems. We used two extensive datasets to evaluate alternative mechanisms for recently reported changes in the observed body size of plethodontid salamanders. We found that mean adult body size of salamanders can be highly sensitive to survey conditions, particularly rainfall. This systematic bias in the detection of larger or smaller individuals could result in a signature of body size change in relation to reported climate trends when it is simply observation error. We also identify considerable variability in body size distributions among years and find that individual growth rates can be strongly influenced by weather. Finally, our study demonstrates that measures of mean adult body size can be highly variable among surveys and that large sample sizes may be required to make reliable inferences. Identifying the effects of climate change is a critical area of research in ecology and conservation. Researchers should be aware that observed changes in certain organisms can result from multiple ecological processes or systematic bias due to nonrandom sampling of populations.
Aggregate Growth and the Efficiency of Labour Reallocation

We consider the potential importance of labour market efficiency for aggregate growth. The idea is that efficient labour markets move workers more quickly from low to high productivity sites, thereby raising aggregate productivity growth. We define a measure of labour market efficiency as a structural parameter from a matching function. Using labour market data on 15 OECD countries, we estimate this and show that it has a significant effect on growth. The results are robust to a number of different estimation techniques. The quantitative impact of market efficiency is not trivial.
High ambipolar and balanced carrier mobility in regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene)

The carrier transport of carefully purified regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) films has been studied using time-of-flight photocurrent measurements. We find balanced ambipolar transport with a room-temperature mobility for holes of 3×10−4cm2V−1s−1 and for electrons of 1.5×10−4cm2V−1s−1 at electric fields ⩾105V∕cm. The transport is relatively field independent and weakly temperature dependent, pointing to a high degree of chemical regioregularity and purity. These factors make poly(3-hexylthiophene) attractive for use in a range of electronic applications.
Efficient Sampling from Time-Varying Log-Concave Distributions

We propose a computationally efficient random walk on a convex body which rapidly mixes and closely tracks a time-varying log-concave distribution. We develop general theoretical guarantees on the required number of steps; this number can be calculated on the fly according to the distance from and the shape of the next distribution. We then illustrate the technique on several examples. Within the context of exponential families, the proposed method produces samples from a posterior distribution which is updated as data arrive in a streaming fashion. The sampling technique can be used to track time-varying truncated distributions, as well as to obtain samples from a changing mixture model, fitted in a streaming fashion to data. In the setting of linear optimization, the proposed method has oracle complexity with best known dependence on the dimension for certain geometries. In the context of online learning and repeated games, the algorithm is an efficient method for implementing no-regret mixture forecasting strategies. Remarkably, in some of these examples, only one step of the random walk is needed to track the next distribution.
Pattern Recognition Method to Detect Vulnerable Spots in an RNA Sequence for Bacterial Resistance to the Antibiotic Spectinomycin

This paper describes an efficient pattern recognition method for detecting vulnerable spots within an RNA sequence. Mutations in these spots may lead to a structural change that directly relates to a change in functionality. Previously, the concept was tried on RNA genetic control elements called ‘riboswitches’ and other known RNA switches. Here, the concept is extended to assist in planning in-vivo experiments in general, using a new tool that we have developed called RNAMute. We apply the package RNAMute on an RNA transcript that was shown experimentally to inactivate spectinomycin resistance in Escherichia coli by creating a library of point mutations using PCR and screening to locate those mutations. Our prediction, conducted independently of the known experimental results, succeeds in matching the inactivating point mutations that were obtained by the selection experiment. Validation of the method with data available from laboratory experiment supports its use as a general predictive tool.
The I band Tully-Fisher relation for cluster galaxies: data presentation.

Observational parameters which can be used for redshift-independent distance determination using the Tully-Fisher (TF) technique are given for 782 spiral galaxies in the fields of 24 clusters or groups. I band photometry for the full sample was either obtained by us or compiled from published literature. Rotational velocities are derived either from 21 cm spectra or optical emission line long--slit spectra, and converted to a homogeneous scale. In addition to presenting the data, a discussion of the various sources of error on TF parameters is introduced, and the criteria for the assignment of membership to each cluster are given. The construction of a TF template, bias corrections and cluster motions are discussed in an accompanying paper.
Optimal Personal Comfort Management Using SPOT+

We present SPOT+, a system that allows office workers to optimally balance between heating energy consumption and personal thermal comfort. In prior work, we described SPOT: a smart personal thermal control system based on reactive control [8]. In contrast, the SPOT+ system performs predictive control. Specifically, SPOT+ uses the k-nearest-neighbour algorithm to predict room occupancy and learning-based model predictive control (LBMPC) to predict future room temperature and to compute the optimal sequence of control inputs. This allows the system to schedule future temperature setpoints to optimize an objective function expressed as a linear combination of thermal comfort and energy consumption. We have deployed SPOT+ as well as four other alternative control schemes in an office workspace. We find that SPOT+ reduces energy usage by 60% compared to a fixed-temperature setpoint and reduces personal thermal discomfort from 0.36 to 0.02 (in the ASHRAE comfort scale) compared to SPOT.
Human gamete fusion can bypass β 1 integrin requirement

Since α6β1 integrin has been shown to function as a sperm adhesion receptor in the mouse, we investigated the potential role of β1 integrin in the gamete fusion process in humans. The expression of β1 integrin was morphologically analysed by indirect immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy. A homogeneous and intense staining was detected at the plasma membrane, and in some subcortical vesicles of germinal vesicle stage oocytes (GV). β1 almost disappeared from oolemma and cytoplasm of metaphase I (MI) oocytes, but was re-expressed as asymmetrical patches at the plasma membrane of metaphase II stage oocytes (MII). A functional fusion assay based on Hoechst or calcein-AM dye transfer from one gamete to the other showed that maturing oocytes were able to fuse with an increasing number of spermatozoa (11–22 from GV to MII respectively), and that fused spermatozoa co-localized with β1 integrin patches. Human gamete fusion was only partially inhibited either by RGD-containing peptide (GRGDTP), or by blocking anti-human β1 integrin monoclonal antibody (DE9), with a maximum of 50% inhibition. Despite the combined addition of GRGDTP and blocking mouse anti-humanβ1 integrin DE9 in the assay, a complete inhibition of fusion could not be achieved. A mouse polyclonal antibody raised against human oocyte membranes was more potent in inhibiting the fusion. Sinceβ1 integrin expression at the plasma membrane was not correlated to oocyte fusibility, and since it was only partially inhibited by DE9 and/or RGD peptide, we suggest that human gamete fusion can bypass theβ1 requirement. β1 integrin certainly participates in human gamete fusion by acting in co-operation with multiple integrin/disintegrin couples or another cofactor, not yet identified.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis Cyclophilin A Uses Novel Signal Sequence for Secretion and Mimics Eukaryotic Cyclophilins for Interaction with Host Protein Repertoire

Cyclophilins are prolyl isomerases with multitude of functions in different cellular processes and pathological conditions. Cyclophilin A (PpiA) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is secreted during infection in intraphagosomal niche. However, our understanding about the evolutionary origin, secretory mechanism or the interactome of M. tuberculosis PpiA is limited. This study demonstrates through phylogenetic and structural analyses that PpiA has more proximity to human cyclophilins than the prokaryotic counterparts. We report a unique N-terminal sequence (MADCDSVTNSP) present in pathogenic mycobacterial PpiA and absent in non-pathogenic strains. This sequence stretch was shown to be essential for PpiA secretion. The overexpression of full-length PpiA from M. tuberculosis in non-pathogenic Mycobacterium smegmatis resulted in PpiA secretion while truncation of the N-terminal stretch obstructed the secretion. In addition, presence of an ESX pathway substrate motif in M. tuberculosis PpiA suggested possible involvement of Type VII secretion system. Site-directed mutagenesis of key residues in this motif in full-length PpiA also hindered the secretion in M. smegmatis. Bacterial two-hybrid screens with human lung cDNA library as target were utilized to identify interaction partners of PpiA from host repertoire, and a number of substrates with functional representation in iron storage, signal transduction and immune responses were detected. The extensive host interactome coupled with the sequence and structural similarity to human cyclophilins is strongly suggestive of PpiA being deployed by M. tuberculosis as an effector mimic against the host cyclophilins.
A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement. Annual Synthesis, 2002.

This synthesis of findings is divided into three sections. The first section, “About the Studies,” briefly describes why these 51 studies were selected and how the data was analyzed. The second section, “Synthesis of Research Studies,” provides findings and recommendations as a result of the data analysis. The third section, “The Research Studies,” provides a brief (1-2 pages) description of each study.
An Assessment of Whole Blood and Fractions by Nested PCR as a DNA Source for Diagnosing Canine Ehrlichiosis and Anaplasmosis

Ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis are tick-borne diseases. Ehrlichia canis and Anaplasma platys infect mainly white cells and platelets, respectively. The main DNA source for PCR is peripheral blood, but the potential of blood cell fractions has not been extensively investigated. This study aims at assessment of whole blood (WB) and blood fractions potential in nested PCR (nPCR) to diagnose canine ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis. The 16S rRNA gene was amplified in 71.4, 17.8, 31.57, and 30% of the WB, granulocyte (G), mononuclear cells (M), and buffy coat (BC) samples. Compared to the WB, the sensitivity of the PCR was 42.86% for the M, and BC fractions, 21.43% for the G, and 33.33% for the blood clot (C). There was fair agreement between the WB and M, BC and C, and slight with the G. Fair agreement occurred between the nPCR and morulae in the blood smear. One animal was coinfected with A. platys and E. canis. This study provided the first evidence of A. platys infection in dogs in Paraíba, Brazil, and demonstrated that WB is a better DNA source than blood fractions to detect Ehrlichia and Anaplasma by nPCR, probably because of the plasma bacterial concentration following host cell lysis.
CA-AODV: Congestion Adaptive AODV Routing Protocol for Streaming Video in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Whenever streaming of multimedia based data such as video, audio and text is performed traffic will be more and network becomes congested in mobile ad hoc networks. The present routing protocols are not able to cope up with this situation. It is observed that network congestion is the dominant reason for packet loss, longer delay and delay jitter in streaming video. Most of the present routing protocols are not designed to adapt to congestion control. We propose a new routing protocol, Congestion Adaptive AODV Routing Protocol (CA-AODV), to address the congestion issues considering delay, packet loss and routing overhead. To evaluate their performance, we have considered mpeg4 for streaming video data using network simulator (NS2). CA-AODV outperforms present protocols in delivery ratio and delay, while introducing less routing protocol overhead. The result demonstrates that integrating congestion adaptive mechanisms with AODV is a promising way to improve performance for heavy traffic load in multimedia based mobile ad hoc networks.
The Effects of Criticism on Creative Ideation

In a typical brainstorming method, criticism must be withheld for creative ideation. We envisage a web-based system that is designed to avoid possible negative influences of, and make good use of, critical thinking to generate creative ideas. To investigate its plausibility, we developed a system in which people participate collectively in a sequence of processes including generating, criticizing, modifying, and evaluating creative ideas. Here we report the results from conducting an experiment with 238 participants to compare the critical thinking (CT) design with a criticizing phase against the brainstorming (BS) design without it. The main finding was that the CT design resulted in the generation of higher quality ideas than the BS design without sacrificing fluency with respect to response time and the number of characters.
Neural activity associated with distinguishing concurrent auditory objects.

The neural processes underlying concurrent sound segregation were examined by using event-related brain potentials. Participants were presented with complex sounds comprised of multiple harmonics, one of which could be mistuned so that it was no longer an integer multiple of the fundamental. In separate blocks of trials, short-, middle-, and long-duration sounds were presented and participants indicated whether they heard one sound (i.e., buzz) or two sounds (i.e., buzz plus another sound with a pure-tone quality). The auditory stimuli were also presented while participants watched a silent movie in order to evaluate the extent to which the mistuned harmonic could be automatically detected. The perception of the mistuned harmonic as a separate sound was associated with a biphasic negative-positive potential that peaked at about 150 and 350 ms after sound onset, respectively. Long duration sounds also elicited a sustained potential that was greater in amplitude when the mistuned harmonic was perceptually segregated from the complex sound. The early negative wave, referred to as the object-related negativity (ORN), was present during both active and passive listening, whereas the positive wave and the mistuning-related changes in sustained potentials were present only when participants attended to the stimuli. These results are consistent with a two-stage model of auditory scene analysis in which the acoustic wave is automatically decomposed into perceptual groups that can be identified by higher executive functions. The ORN and the positive waves were little affected by sound duration, indicating that concurrent sound segregation depends on transient neural responses elicited by the discrepancy between the mistuned harmonic and the harmonic frequency expected based on the fundamental frequency of the incoming stimulus.
Essays on Asset Trade

The overreaching methodology of my Ph.D. thesis is to substitute noise traders with rational traders. I do so by considering liquidity asymmetry between informed trader and uninformed traders. Liquidity asymmetry creates a motive for trade. Under this new setup, I study the impact of asset trade on the real economy, represented by a firm with an investment opportunity, in chapter 1 ("Efficient Asset Trade - A Model with Asymmetric Information and Asymmetric Liquidity Needs"). I find conditions for which asset trade leads to inefficient investment. Chapter 2 ("(In)Efficient Asset Trade and a Rationale for a Tobin Tax") characterizes a tax which can restore efficient investment. In chapter 3, I show that finitely repeated trade, as in Kyle (1985) and Ostrovsky (2012), does not necessarily lead to information revelation if traders are fully rational.
Comparison of intraoperative frozen section analysis of sentinel node with preoperative positron emission tomography in the diagnosis of axillary lymph node status in breast cancer patients.

BACKGROUND Although axillary lymph node status is an important prognostic factor and axillary dissection is regarded as the gold standard for staging, it requires radical surgery which is accompanied by considerable postoperative problems such as lymphedema. This study was carried out to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of preoperative positron emission tomography (PET) and intraoperative frozen biopsy of sentinel lymphadenectomy (SLND) in detecting axillary lymph node metastasis. METHODS We studied 18 patients who had preoperative PET and SLND for breast cancer in the Department of Surgery at Samsung Medical Center. They all had preoperative PET with a radiolabeled glucose analogue ([18F]FDG) to visualize primary tumors and metastatic nodes. Isosulphan blue dye was used for intraoperative SLND. Frozen and permanent biopsies were then compared after full axillary dissection. RESULTS In 18 cases, six had positive metastatic nodes in the permanent biopsy of full axillary dissection but were negative in three cases by preoperative PET. There was one false negative result by frozen biopsy of SLND which was later shown to be positive by permanent biopsy. The sensitivity and specificity of SLND and PET for detecting axillary node metastasis were 83, 100% and 50, 100%, respectively. CONCLUSION Although both methods are good for axillary nodal status, the intraoperative frozen biopsy result of SLND was superior to preoperative PET in our preliminary study.
ASSESSING STUDENT LEARNING WITH AUTOMATED TEXT PROCESSING TECHNIQUES

Research on distance learning and computer-aided grading has been developed in parallel. Little work has been done in the past to join the two areas to solve the problem of automated learning assessment in virtual classrooms. This paper presents a model for learning assessment using an automated text processing technique to analyze class messages with an emphasis on course topics produced in an online class. It is suggested that students should be evaluated on many dimensions, including the learning artifacts such as course work submitted and class participation. Taking all these grading criteria into consideration, we design a model which combines three grading factors: the quality of course work, the quantity of efforts, and the activeness of participation, for evaluating the performance of students in the class. These three main items are measured on the basis of keyword contribution, message length, and message count, and a score is derived from the class messages to evaluate students’ performance. An assessment model is then constructed from these three measures to compute a performance indicator score for each student. The experiment shows that there is a high correlation between the performance indicator scores and the actual grades assigned by instructors. The rank orders of students by performance indicator scores and by the actual grades are highly correlated as well. Evidence from the experiment shows that the computer grader can be a great supplementary teaching and grading tool for distance learning instructors.
Social Security as Trade Among Living Generations

We model [U.S.] Social Security that is legislated endogeneously by living generations. Specifically we consider the effects of Social Security on resource allocation and Pareto optimality examining which generations gain from Social Security and whether some generations lose. Because saving and transfer decisions are made sequentially in the real world we use an infinite-horizon overlapping-generations framework in which life-cycle saving and transfers to the old are determined by living agents. We focus on the case in which agents are altruistic but place sufficiently greater weight on own comsumption than on the consumption of agents in other generations so that starting from a steady state without Social Security living agents would gain utility if consumption were shifted marginally to them from later generations. (EXCERPT)