Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of Annealing on Mechanical Properties of Al-20Si Processed by Selective Laser Melting

The microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-20Si produced by selective laser melting (SLM) are investigated for different heat treatment conditions. As a result of the high cooling rate during processing, the as-built SLM material displays a microstructure consisting of a supersaturated Al(Si) solid solution along with heavily refined eutectic Si and Si particles. The Si particles become coarser, and the eutectic Si gradually changes its morphology from fibrous to plate-like shape with increasing annealing temperature. The microstructural variations occurring during heat treatment significantly affect the mechanical behavior of the samples. The yield and ultimate strengths decrease from 374 and 506 MPa for the as-built SLM material to 162 and 252 MPa for the sample annealed at 673 K, whereas the ductility increases from 1.6 to 8.7%. This offers the possibility to tune microstructure and corresponding properties of the Al-20Si SLM parts to meet specific requirements.
Identification of the sediment-associated contaminants in the Illinois River Complex using a toxicity identification evaluation (TIE)

The final report for this project “Identification of the Sediment-Associated Contaminants in the Illinois River Complex using a Toxicity Identification Evaluation (TIE)”, conducted by Dr. Michael Lydy and W. Tyler Mehler, is comprised of the thesis of W. Tyler Mehler submitted to the Department of Zoology, Southern Illinois University – Carbondale in December 2009. In addition, two papers have been published which are based on this project: Mehler, W. Tyler, Jonathan D. Maul, Jing You, and Michael J. Lydy. 2009. "Identifying the causes of sediment-associated contamination in the Illinois River (USA) using whole-sediment toxicity identification evaluation. " Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 29(1): 158-167; Mehler, W. Tyler, Jing You, Jonathan D. Maul, and Michael J. Lydy. 2010. "Comparative analysis of whole sediment and porewater toxicity identification evaluation techniques for ammonia and non-polar organic contaminants. " Chemosphere 78: 814-821. The thesis and research papers have been subjected to external scientific peer review and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center.
ENDOGENOUS SHORT-SALE CONSTRAINT, STOCK PRICES AND OUTPUT CYCLES

This study examines the effect of short-sale constraints on a stock market, in particular, on stock prices, trading volume, and the relationship between stock price movements and output cycles. The economic model features incomplete markets and heterogeneous agents. The short-sale constraint is endogenously determined in the economy and is a function of agents' risk aversion, time preference, and exogenous driving forces. The dynamic model is solved using a policy function iteration algorithm. We find that, for an array of reasonable time-preference parameters and risk-aversion coefficients, the short sale limits range from 27 to 45% of total outstanding shares. Imposing short-sale constraints causes stock prices to move upward. Trading volume is high when some agents have a large amount of stock holdings but incur a negative shock on their nonfinancial income and is low when some agents have few stock holdings and also incur a negative shock to their nonfinancial income. Stock prices are found to be countercyclical and the expected stock returns are procyclical. These countercyclical stock-price movements are shown to be related to the imposition of a short-sale constraint.
The Color Selection of Quasars from Redshifts 5 to 10: Cloning and Discovery

We present simulations of quasar colors, magnitudes, and numbers at redshifts 5 < z < 10 based on our discovery of 10 new high-redshift quasars and the cloning of lower redshift Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars. The 10 quasars have redshifts ranging from z = 4.7 to 5.3 and i magnitudes of 20.21–20.94. The natural diversity of spectral features in the cloned sample allows more realistic simulation of the quasar locus width than was previously possible with synthetic template spectra. Colors are generated for the z > 6 epoch, taking advantage of the new UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey near-infrared filter set, and we examine the redshift intervals of maximum productivity, discussing color selection and survey depth issues. On the basis of the SDSS sample, we find that the surface density of z > 4.7 quasars increases by a factor of 3 times by extending 0.7 i magnitudes deeper than the SDSS spectroscopic survey limit of i = 20.2; correspondingly, we predict a total of ∼400 faint quasars in the SDSS main area that have redshift z > 4.7 and magnitudes i < 20.9.
Automatic Phoneme Category Selectivity in the Dorsal Auditory Stream

Debates about motor theories of speech perception have recently been reignited by a burst of reports implicating premotor cortex (PMC) in speech perception. Often, however, these debates conflate perceptual and decision processes. Evidence that PMC activity correlates with task difficulty and subject performance suggests that PMC might be recruited, in certain cases, to facilitate category judgments about speech sounds (rather than speech perception, which involves decoding of sounds). However, it remains unclear whether PMC does, indeed, exhibit neural selectivity that is relevant for speech decisions. Further, it is unknown whether PMC activity in such cases reflects input via the dorsal or ventral auditory pathway, and whether PMC processing of speech is automatic or task-dependent. In a novel modified categorization paradigm, we presented human subjects with paired speech sounds from a phonetic continuum but diverted their attention from phoneme category using a challenging dichotic listening task. Using fMRI rapid adaptation to probe neural selectivity, we observed acoustic-phonetic selectivity in left anterior and left posterior auditory cortical regions. Conversely, we observed phoneme-category selectivity in left PMC that correlated with explicit phoneme-categorization performance measured after scanning, suggesting that PMC recruitment can account for performance on phoneme-categorization tasks. Structural equation modeling revealed connectivity from posterior, but not anterior, auditory cortex to PMC, suggesting a dorsal route for auditory input to PMC. Our results provide evidence for an account of speech processing in which the dorsal stream mediates automatic sensorimotor integration of speech and may be recruited to support speech decision tasks.
Xenogeneic human anti-mouse T cell responses are due to the activity of the same functional T cell subsets responsible for allospecific and major histocompatibility complex-restricted responses

Human T cells respond strongly to mouse major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens. The response is directed predominantly to the polymorphic determinants of the MHC antigens and there is little or no response to the nonpolymorphic determinants or to non-MHC antigens. Human cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) are generated specific for the mouse class I MHC antigens and the CTL effectors are blocked by anti- Leu-2a antisera. Human interleukin 2-producing T cells are generated specific for mouse class II antigens and their induction is blocked by anti-Leu-3a antisera. These and other considerations lead us to propose a model for the T cell receptor that provides an explanation for several of the features of T cell recognition. In this model, the recognition of the "class" (I or II) of MHC antigen is separate from the recognition of the polymorphic determinants. We suggest that the initial recognition of the conserved "class" determinants positions another domain of the receptor so that it can only engage with the part of the MHC molecule carrying the polymorphic determinants.
Culture ’ s Influence on Consumer Behaviors : Differences Among Ethnic Groups in a Multiracial Asian Country

This study investigates the effects of culture on various aspects of consumer behavior in an integrative framework among the three ethnic groups in Singapore. Using the Hofstede's (1980) cultural framework, differences in their cultural orientation are hypothesized. Then, for each cultural dimension, related consumer behaviors are identified and differences in those behaviors are hypothesized according to the predicted differences in each related cultural dimension. Although the results seem to suggest that culture may be one of the major factors that influence the consumption behaviors, the strong evidence for the link between the Hofstede's framework and the related consumer behaviors is not observed in this study.
Justifications, Strategies, and Critical Success Factors in Successful ITIL Implementations in U.S. and Australian Companies: An Exploratory Study

Abstract A growing number of organizations are implementing the ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) “best practice” framework in an attempt to improve their IT service management processes. However, not all ITIL implementations are successful and some companies have been disappointed with the outcomes. This exploratory research reports on four case studies of “successful” implementations of IT service management using the process-based ITIL V2 framework. Two companies are located in the U.S. and two in Australia. The cases demonstrate a mix of implementation justifications and strategies. Critical success factors (CSFs) suggested in the literature are compared against those attributed to these successful ITIL implementations. Some CSFs, including executive management support, interdepartmental communication and collaboration, use of consultants, training and careful software selection are confirmed. Three new CSFs are identified: creating an ITIL-friendly culture, process as a priority, and customer-focused metrics. Practitioner guidelines, to assist IT managers, who are contemplating adopting ITIL for process improvement and organisational transformation, are also provided together with some challenges encountered and their associated resolutions.
Oxycodone Controlled Release in Cancer Pain Management

Oral opioids are the treatment of choice for chronic cancer pain. Morphine is the strong opioid of choice for the treatment of moderate to severe cancer pain according to guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO). This recommendation by the WHO was derived from availability, familiarity to clinicians, established effectiveness, simplicity of administration, and relative inexpensive cost. It was not based on proven therapeutic superiority over other options. Patients who experience inadequate pain relief or intolerable side effects with one opioid may often be successfully treated with another agent or with the same agent administered by a different route. Opioid rotation, or switching to an alternative opioid, helps some patients achieve better pain control with fewer associated adverse effects. Oxycodone is a μ-opioid receptor specific ligand, with clear agonist properties. It is an active potent opioid, which is in part a κ-receptor agonist. Like morphine and other pure agonists, there is no known ceiling to the analgesic effects of oxycodone. The active metabolites of oxycodone (eg, oxymorphone) could be important in oxycodone-mediated analgesia. The main pharmacokinetic difference between oxycodone and morphine is in oral bioavailability. The bioavailability of oxycodone is >60% and the bioavailability of morphine is 20%. Controlled-release oxycodone is absorbed in a bi-exponential fashion. There is a rapid phase with a mean half-life of 37 min, accounting for 38% of the dose, and a slow phase with a half-life of 6.2 h, which accounts for the residual 62%. Oxycodone elimination is impaired by renal failure because there are both an increased volume of distribution and reduced clearance. A lot of studies prove that the efficacy of controlled-release oxycodone in cancer-pain control is at least the same as morphine, immediate-release oxycodone and hydromorphone. Its toxicity profile seems better than that of morphine. There are actually several illustrations of a lower incidence of side-effects in the central nervous system. It is therefore possible to conclude that oxycodone represents a valid alternative to morphine in the management of moderate to severe cancer pain, also as first-line treatment.
The impact of social and cultural factors on regional development : a comparative case study in Portugal and Croatia

This article examines some of the ways in which the influence of noneconomic factors on socio-economic development can be conceptualised. It is being analysed how some of these factors can be measured. In this connection, a concept of “social context” is introduced and the levels of interpersonal trust and civic culture are suggested as possible proxies for its evaluation in a particular spatial unit. Furthermore, two lagging European countries that can be considered representatives of the European periphery in general are selected for a more detailed analysis: Portugal (old EU member and established market economy) and Croatia (aspiring EU member and post-socialist country). It is being shown that not only the levels of economic development, but also the levels of trust and civic culture are remarkably low in these two countries. The causal direction of this relationship might at the first glance seem unambiguous; however, the author suggests that economic development may in fact be affected by social context in the form, for example, of the levels of trust and civic culture.
Synchronization of Stochastic Dynamical Networks Under Impulsive Control With Time Delays

In this paper, the stochastic synchronization problem is studied for a class of delayed dynamical networks under delayed impulsive control. Different from the existing results on the synchronization of dynamical networks under impulsive control, impulsive input delays are considered in our model. By assuming that the impulsive intervals belong to a certain interval and using the mathematical induction method, several conditions are derived to guarantee that complex networks are exponentially synchronized in mean square. The derived conditions reveal that the frequency of impulsive occurrence, impulsive input delays, and stochastic perturbations can heavily affect the synchronization performance. A control algorithm is then presented for synchronizing stochastic dynamical networks with delayed synchronizing impulses. Finally, two examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
An Actor-Critic Algorithm for Sequence Prediction

We present an approach to training neural networks to generate sequences using actor-critic methods from reinforcement learning (RL). Current log-likelihood training methods are limited by the discrepancy between their training and testing modes, as models must generate tokens conditioned on their previous guesses rather than the ground-truth tokens. We address this problem by introducing a \textit{critic} network that is trained to predict the value of an output token, given the policy of an \textit{actor} network. This results in a training procedure that is much closer to the test phase, and allows us to directly optimize for a task-specific score such as BLEU. Crucially, since we leverage these techniques in the supervised learning setting rather than the traditional RL setting, we condition the critic network on the ground-truth output. We show that our method leads to improved performance on both a synthetic task, and for German-English machine translation. Our analysis paves the way for such methods to be applied in natural language generation tasks, such as machine translation, caption generation, and dialogue modelling.
Uniqueness by Dirichlet-to-Neumann map on an arbitrary part of boundary in two dimensions by

We prove for a two dimensional bounded simply connected domain that the Cauchy data for the Schrodinger equation measured on an arbitrary open subset of the boundary determines uniquely the potential. This implies, for the conductivity equation, that if we measure the current fluxes at the boundary on an arbitrary open subset of the boundary produced by voltage potentials supported in the same subset, we can determine uniquely the conductivity. We use Carleman estimates with degenerate weight functions to construct appropriate complex geometrical optics solutions to prove the results.
Every monotone graph property is testable

A graph property is called monotone if it is closed under taking (not necessarily induced) subgraphs (or, equivalently, if it is closed under removal of edges and vertices). Many monotone graph properties are some of the most well-studied properties in graph theory, and the abstract family of all monotone graph properties was also extensively studied. Our main result in this paper is that any monotone graph property can be tested with one-sided error, and with query complexity depending only on ε. This result unifies several previous results in the area of property testing, and also implies the testability of well-studied graph properties that were previously not known to be testable. At the heart of the proof is an application of a variant of Szemerédi's Regularity Lemma. The main ideas behind this application may be useful in characterizing all testable graph properties, and in generally studying graph property testing.As a byproduct of our techniques we also obtain additional results in graph theory and property testing, which are of independent interest. One of these results is that the query complexity of testing testable graph properties with one-sided error may be arbitrarily large. Another result, which significantly extends previous results in extremal graph-theory, is that for any monotone graph property P, any graph that is ε -far from satisfying P, contains a subgraph of size depending on ε only, which does not satisfy P. Finally, we prove the following compactness statement: If a graph G is ε-far from satisfying a (possibly infinite) set of graph properties P, then it is at least δ P ε-far from satisfying one of the properties.
Overview on how oncogenic Kras promotes pancreatic carcinogenesis by inducing low intracellular ROS levels

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a devastating disease without clearly known disease causes. Recent epidemiological and animal studies suggest that the supplementation of dietary antioxidants (e.g., vitamins C and E) decreases cancer risk, implying that increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) may play a role in pancreatic carcinogenesis. However, oncogenic Kras mutations (e.g., KrasG12D), which are present in more than 90% of PDAC, have been proven to foster low intracellular ROS levels. Here, oncogenic Kras activates expression of a series of anti-oxidant genes via Nrf2 (nuclear factor, erythroid derived 2, like 2) and also mediates an unusual metabolic pathway of glutamine to generate NADPH. This can then be used as the reducing power for ROS detoxification, leading collectively to low ROS levels in pancreatic pre-neoplastic cells and in cancer cells. In adult stem cells and cancer stem cells, low ROS levels have been associated with the formation of a proliferation-permissive intracellular environment and with perseverance of self-renewal capacities. Therefore, it is conceivable that low intracellular ROS levels may contribute significantly to oncogenic Kras-mediated PDAC formation.
The mitochondrial genome of the land snail Cernuella virgata (Da Costa, 1778): the first complete sequence in the family Hygromiidae (Pulmonata, Stylommatophora)

Abstract The land snail Cernuella virgata (da Costa, 1778) is widely considered as a pest to be quarantined in most countries. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of Cernuella virgata is published. The mitochondrial genome has a length of 14,147 bp a DNA base composition of 29.07% A, 36.88% T, 15.59% C and 18.46% G, encoding 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes and two ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. The complete nucleotide composition was biased toward adenine and thymine, A+T accounting for 69.80%. Nine PCGs and 14 tRNA genes are encoded on the J strand, and the other four PCGs and eight tRNA genes are encoded on the N strand. The genome also includes 16 intergenic spacers. All PCGs start strictly with ATN, and have conventional stop codons (TAA and TAG). All tRNAs fold into the classic cloverleaf structure, except tRNAArg, tRNASer(UCN), tRNASer(AGN) and tRNAPro. The first three lack the dihydrouridine arm while the last lacks the TψC arm. There are 502 bp long noncoding regions and 418bp long gene overlaps in the whole mitochondrial genome, accounting for 3.54% and 2.95% of the total length respectively. Phylogenetic analyses based on the sequences of the protein coding genes revealed a sister group relationship between the Hygromiidae and the Helicidae.
Diffusion spline adaptive filtering

Diffusion adaptation (DA) algorithms allow a network of agents to collectively estimate a parameter vector, by jointly minimizing the sum of their local cost functions. This is achieved by interleaving local update steps with `diffusion' steps, where information is combined with their own neighbors. In this paper, we propose a novel class of nonlinear diffusion filters, based on the recently proposed spline adaptive filter (SAF). A SAF learns nonlinear models by local interpolating polynomials, with a small overhead with respect to linear filters. This arises from the fact that only a small subset of parameters of the nonlinear component are adapted at every time-instant. By applying ideas from the DA framework, in this paper we derive a diffused version of the SAF, denoted as D-SAF. Experimental evaluations show that the D-SAF is able to robustly learn the underlying nonlinear model, with a significant gain compared to a non-cooperative solution.
Predicting Opponents Offers in Multi-agent Negotiations Using ARTMAP Neural Network

Negotiations are one of the most common ways that agents in a multi-agent system use to reach agreements. As negotiations commonly are multi-lateral and multi-issue, these processes become more difficult. Moreover, in real-world applications in which real-time agents are needed, this issue becomes more important. Autonomous agents should be able to decide what to propose in each round of negotiations quickly. In this situation if an agent is able to predict opponent's behavior including its next offer, the task of offering comes to be more efficient. This paper presents an approach in which an agent can predict opponent's next offer using a history of previous offers and counter-offers by the aid of ARTMAP Neural Network. The agent can employ this information to determine its offer after a "what-if" analysis of possible offers. The experimental results show that this approach substantially decreases the duration of negotiations and can be used in real applications as well.
Observational Signatures of the First Luminous Objects

The next generation of astronomical instruments will be able to detect dense pockets of ionized gas created by the first luminous objects. The integrated free-free emission from ionized halos creates a spectral distortion of the cosmic microwave background, greater than the distortion due to the reionized intergalactic medium. Its detection is well within the capabilities of the planned DIMES satellite. Ionized halos may also be imaged directly in free-free emission by the Square Kilometer Array. Bright halos will be detected as discrete sources, while residual unresolved sources can still be detected statistically from temperature fluctuations in maps. Balmer line emission from ionized halos is detectable by the Next Generation Space Telescope and can be used to obtain redshift information. Unlike Lyα, the Hα line does not suffer from resonant scattering by neutral hydrogen and is still observable when the intergalactic medium is not fully reionized. In addition, it is less susceptible to dust extinction. Finally, the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect may be used to detect ionized gas at high redshift. Used in concert, these observations will probe ionizing emissivity, gas clumping, and star formation in the early universe.