Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mechanical properties and fracture mechanism of ZA-27/TiO2 particulate metal matrix composites

Abstract The mechanical properties and the fracture mechanism of composites consisting of ZA-27 alloy reinforced with titanium dioxide particles were investigated with the primary objective of understanding the influence of the particulate reinforcement on the mechanical behaviour of the ZA-27 alloy. The titanium dioxide particle content in the composites ranged from 0 to 6 per cent, in steps of 2 wt %. The composites were fabricated by the stir casting technique in which the reinforcement particles were dispersed in the vortex created in the molten matrix alloy. The study revealed improvements in Young's modulus, ultimate tensile strength (UTS), compressive strength, yield strength and hardness of the composites as the titanium dioxide content was increased, but at the expense of ductility and impact strength. The fracture behaviour of the composite was also significantly influenced by the presence of titanium dioxide particles. Eventual fracture was a result of crack propagation through the matrix as well as through the reinforcing particles. Scanning electron microscopy and fractography analyses were carried out to provide suitable explanations for the observed phenomena.
Critical management issues in implementing ERP: empirical evidences from Taiwanese firms

This paper presents a recently completed survey of Taiwanese firms that focuses on their use or intended implementation of packaged ERP systems. The objective was to investigate the extent to which packaged ERP systems were applied in manufacturing and service firms, the motivation behind such applications, the implementation experience, and the benefits obtained from the implementation. This study examined critical management issues in ERP implementation and demonstrated how the evidences obtained could be applied to understand the experience and advance the success of ERP implementation.
Regional Gossip Routing for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Many routing protocols have been proposed for wireless ad hoc networks, and most of them are based on some variants of flooding. Thus many routing messages are propagated through the network unnecessarily despite various optimizations. Gossip based routing method has been used and re-investigated to reduce the number of messages in both wired networks and wireless ad hoc networks. However, the global gossiping still generates many unnecessary messages in the area that could be far away from the line between sender node and receiver node. We propose a regional gossip approach, where only the nodes within some region forward a message with some probability, to reduce the overhead of the route discovery in the network. We show how to set the forwarding probability based on the region and the network density both by theoretical analysis and by extensive simulations. Our simulations show that the number of messages generated using this approach is much less than the simple global gossiping method, which already saves many messages compared with global flooding. We expect that the improvement should be even more significant in larger networks.
Assignment and reordering of incompletely specified pattern sequences targetting minimum power dissipation

For a significant number of electronic systems used in safety-critical applications circuit testing is performed periodically. For these systems, power dissipation due to Built-in Self Test (BIST) can represent a significant percentage of the overall power dissipation. One approach to minimize power consumption in these systems consists of test pattern sequence reordering. Moreover a key observation is that test patterns are in general expected to exhibit don't cares, which can naturally be exploited during test pattern sequence reordering. In this paper we develop an optimization model and describe an efficient algorithm for reordering pattern sequences in the presence of don't cares. Preliminary experimental results amply confirm that the resulting power savings due to pattern sequence reordering using don't cares can be significant.
Studying Mechanisms To Strengthen Causal Inferences In Quantitative Research

Let me emphasize at the outset that as the terms are being used here, causal inference is not the same as statistical inference. The two types of inference are similar in that they both use “localized” information to draw conclusions about more general phenomena; however the types of phenomena about which one seeks to generalize are not the same and the types of information used also often differ. In statistical inference, one typically uses information obtained from a limited number of observations—usually based on a random sample—to draw conclusions about the likely value of some parameter in the population at large such as a regression coefficient or a standard deviation. In
Don’t all firms have relationships?

The need for suppliers to carefully determine the form of customer relationship which is appropriate for their business is discussed. The experiences of two firms are considered, one of which is successful because it does not develop close relationships with its customers or its suppliers. The other each year applies a sophisticated classification scheme to determine what type of relationship will be most profitable. It makes this assessment on the basis of its understanding of each customer’s needs and of the resources it has available to manage whatever types of relationship it considers appropriate.
Chemical Composition of the Essential Oil from Corsican Mentha aquatica - Combined Analysis by GC(RI), GC-MS and 13C NMR Spectroscopy

The essential oil (EO) of M. aquatica L. growing wild in Corsica was isolated by dry vapor distillation and submitted to combined analysis by column chromatography over silica gel, GC(RI), GC-MS and 13C NMR spectroscopy. The composition was dominated by oxygenated monoterpenes and characterized by the occurrence of menthofuran (50.7%) as the major component. In parallel, seven laboratory-distilled oil samples isolated from individual plants collected in Corsica were analyzed by GC(RI) and 13C NMR spectroscopy. Only quantitative differences were observed between the samples. Beside the usual terpenes, various p-menthane lactones (mintlactone, isomintlactone, hydroxymintlactone, menthofurolactone and epimenthofurolactone) have been identified in all the oil samples.
Transcriptome analysis of sex-related genes in the blood clam Tegillarca granosa

Background Blood clams (Tegillarca granosa) are one of the most commercial shellfish in China and South Asia with wide distribution in Indo-Pacific tropical to temperate estuaries. However, recent data indicate a decline in the germplasm of this species. Furthermore, the molecular mechanisms underpinning reproductive regulation remain unclear and information regarding genetic diversity is limited. Understanding the reproductive biology of shellfish is important in interpreting their embryology development, reproduction and population structure. Transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) rapidly obtains genetic sequence information from almost all transcripts of a particular tissue and currently represents the most prevalent and effective method for constructing genetic expression profiles. Results Non-reference RNA-seq, an Illumina HiSeq2500 Solexa system, and de novo assembly were used to construct a gonadal expression profile of the blood clam. A total of 63.75 Gb of clean data, with at least 89.46% of Quality30 (Q30), were generated which was then combined into 214,440 transcripts and 125,673 unigenes with a mean length of 1,122.63 and 781.30 base pairs (bp). In total, 27,325 genes were annotated by comparison with public databases. Of these, 2,140 and 2,070 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained (T05 T08 vs T01 T02 T04, T06 T07 vs T01 T02 T04; in which T01-T04 and T05-T08 represent biological replicates of individual female and male clams, respectively) and classified into two groups according to the evaluation of biological replicates. Then 35 DEGs and 5 sex-related unigenes, in other similar species, were investigated using qRT-PCR, the results of which were confirmed to data arising from RNA-seq. Among the DEGs, sex-related genes were identified, including forkhead box L2 (Foxl2), sex determining region Y-box (Sox), beta-catenin (β-catenin), chromobox homolog (CBX) and Sex-lethal (Sxl). In addition, 6,283 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and 614,710 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified from the RNA-seq results. Conclusions This study provided the first complete gonadal transcriptome data for the blood clam and allowed us to search many aspects of gene sequence information, not limited to gender. This data will improve our understanding of the transcriptomics and reproductive biology of the blood clam. Furthermore, molecular markers such as SSRs and SNPs will be useful in the analysis of genetic evolution, bulked segregant analysis (BSA) and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Our transcriptome data will therefore provide important genetic information for the breeding and conservation of germplasm.
HIV Drug Resistance: Problems and Perspectives

Access to combination antiretroviral treatment (ART) has improved greatly over recent years. At the end of 2011, more than eight million HIV-infected people were receiving ART in low-income and middle-income countries. ART generally works well in keeping the virus suppressed and the patient healthy. However, treatment only works as long as the virus is not resistant against the drugs used. In the last decades, HIV treatments have become better and better at slowing down the evolution of drug resistance, so that some patients are treated for many years without having any resistance problems. However, for some patients, especially in low-income countries, drug resistance is still a serious threat to their health. This essay will review what is known about transmitted and acquired drug resistance, multi-class drug resistance, resistance to newer drugs, resistance due to treatment for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, the role of minority variants (low-frequency drug-resistance mutations), and resistance due to pre-exposure prophylaxis.
Child-Pugh versus MELD score in predicting survival in patients undergoing transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt

Background: In patients undergoing transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS), prognostic scores may identify those with a poor prognosis or even those with a clear survival benefit. The Child-Pugh score (CPS) is well established but several drawbacks have led to development of the model of end stage liver disease (MELD). Aim: The aim of the study was to compare the predictive power of CPS and MELD, to validate the original MELD formula, and to assess the predictive value of the determinants used in the two prognostic scores outside of a study setting. Patients: A total of 501 patients underwent elective TIPS placement and 475 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Methods: Data of all patients undergoing elective TIPS in one university hospital and four community hospitals in Vienna, Austria, between 1991 and 2001, were analysed retrospectively. The main statistical tests were Cox proportional hazards regression model, the log rank test, Kaplan-Meier analysis, and concordance c statistics. Results: Median follow up was 5.2 years and median survival was 4.6 years. During follow up, 230 patients died, 75 within three months after TIPS placement. In stepwise proportional hazards analyses, independent predictors of death were creatinine level, bilirubin level, age, and refractory ascites. MELD was better in predicting survival in a stepwise Cox model but both scores were equally predictive in c statistics for one month, three month, and one year survival. Renal function was the strongest independent predictor of survival. Conclusions: Although MELD was the primary predictor of overall survival in multivariate analysis, c statistics showed that both scores can be used for patients undergoing TIPS with equal accuracy. For assessing prognosis in patients undergoing TIPS implantation, there seems little reason to replace the well established Child-Pugh score.
Eastern Medicine Approaches to Male Infertility

Abstract Male factor is a common cause of infertility and the male partner must be systematically evaluated in the workup of every infertile couple. Various Eastern medical strategies have been tried with variable success. This article describes the clinical effects of Eastern medicine approaches including acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, massage, yoga, tai chi, and qi gong, which could improve the sperm parameters and motility, genital inflammatory conditions, as well as immune system disorders, sexual dysfunction, and varicocele. Acupuncture reduces inflammation, increases sperm motility, improves semen parameters, modulates the immune system, and improves sexual and ejaculatory dysfunction in male infertility. The clinical effects may be mediated via activation of somatic afferent nerves innervating the skin and muscle. Chinese herbal medicines may also exert helpful effects in male infertility, and it is worth noting that some herbal drugs may result in male infertility. Massage also exerts positive effects in male infertility. Nevertheless, the mechanisms of clinical effects are unclear. Tai chi, qi gong, and yoga have not been investigated in male infertility, but it has been reported to regulate endocrine and central or autonomic nervous systems. In conclusion, Eastern medical approaches have beneficial on reproductive effects in male infertility. However, future well-designed, randomized, clinical control trials are needed to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and mechanisms of Eastern medical approaches for male infertility.
The What, the When, and the Whether of Intentional Action in the Brain: A Meta-Analytical Review

In their attempt to define discrete subcomponents of intentionality, Brass and Haggard (2008) proposed their What, When, and Whether model (www-model) which postulates that the content, the timing and the possibility of generating an action can be partially independent both at the cognitive level and at the level of their neural implementation. The original proposal was based on a limited number of studies, which were reviewed with a discursive approach. To assess whether the model stands in front of the more recently published data, we performed a systematic review of the literature with a meta-analytic method based on a hierarchical clustering (HC) algorithm. We identified 15 PET/fMRI studies well-suited for this quest. HC revealed the existence of a rostro-caudal gradient within the medial prefrontal cortex, with the more anterior regions (the anterior cingulum) involved in more abstract decisions of whether to execute an action and the more posterior ones (the middle cingulum or the SMA) recruited in specifying the content and the timing components of actions. However, in contrast with the original www-model, this dissociation involves also brain regions well outside the median wall of the frontal lobe, in a component specific manner: the supramarginal gyrus for the what component, the pallidum and the thalamus for the when component, the putamen and the insula for the whether component. We then calculated co-activation maps on the three component-specific www clusters of the medial wall of the frontal/limbic lobe: to this end, we used the activation likelihood approach that we applied on the imaging studies on action contained in the BrainMap.org database. This analysis confirmed the main findings of the HC analyses. However, the BrainMap.org data analyses also showed that the aforementioned segregations are generated by paradigms in which subjects act in response to conditional stimuli rather than while driven by their own intentions. We conclude that the available data confirm that the neural underpinnings of intentionality can be fractionated in discrete components that are partially independent. We also suggest that intentionality manifests itself in discrete components through the boosting of general purpose action-related regions specialized for different aspects of action selection and inhibition.
Quantitative fractographic analyses of fatigue crack growth in longerons of in-service helicopter rotor-blades

— An analysis is made of striation spacing measurements as observed on fatigue crack surfaces of specimens and longerons of helicopter rotor-blades made from the aluminium alloy AVT. It is shown that, for the combined cyclic tensile stresses at various R-ratios and static rotation angles, α, striation spacings were controlled by an equivalent intensity factor Ke=K1F(α, R). Values of the F(α) for Ri= const were computed. The crack growth life in terms of the number of flights and stress equivalents were computed for various longeron sections of the helicopter rotor-blades which had failed in service. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS (1) A fatigue striation spacing analysis was made from measurements on AVT Al-alloy specimens tested in air under combined cyclic tension and static-rotation loads at various a-angles of rotation, and stress ratios, R. Fractographic analyses have shown similarities in terms of striation spacing formation in the investigated range of α-angles and R ratios. (2) The similarity in the fatigue fracture mechanisms attested to the possibility of characterizing the striation spacing formation by a unified kinetic diagram via a Ke= K1F(α, R) approach for different α-angles and R ratios. The function F(α, R) was determined and it can be used to calculate the tensile stress equivalent according to values of σi measurements taken from components broken in tests or in service. (3) It was a longeron of the rotor-blade of helicopters manufactured from AVT Al-alloy broken in service and tested cyclically that were investigated fractographically. An analysis of the formation of striations and their spacing has shown similarities with the investigated longerons fatigued in tests and in service. The crack growth life versus number of flights and stress equivalent was calculated according to values of the σi measurements. (4) It was shown that a fatigue crack will not nucleate in longerons in service if the depth of defects on the external surface have a size less than 0.3 mm. The stress for tested longerons is near to the calculated equivalent for longerons that failed in service.
Rapid Neural Adaptation to Sound Level Statistics

Auditory neurons must represent accurately a wide range of sound levels using firing rates that vary over a far narrower range of levels. Recently, we demonstrated that this “dynamic range problem” is lessened by neural adaptation, whereby neurons adjust their input–output functions for sound level according to the prevailing distribution of levels. These adjustments in input–output functions increase the accuracy with which levels around those occurring most commonly are coded by the neural population. Here, we examine how quickly this adaptation occurs. We recorded from single neurons in the auditory midbrain during a stimulus that switched repeatedly between two distributions of sound levels differing in mean level. The high-resolution analysis afforded by this stimulus showed that a prominent component of the adaptation occurs rapidly, with an average time constant across neurons of 160 ms after an increase in mean level, much faster than our previous experiments were able to assess. This time course appears to be independent of both the timescale over which sound levels varied and that over which sound level distributions varied, but is related to neural characteristic frequency. We find that adaptation to an increase in mean level occurs more rapidly than to a decrease. Finally, we observe an additional, slow adaptation in some neurons, which occurs over a timescale of tens of seconds. Our findings provide constraints in the search for mechanisms underlying adaptation to sound level. They also have functional implications for the role of adaptation in the representation of natural sounds.
Evolution of radiographic damage in ankylosing spondylitis: a 12 year prospective follow-up of the OASIS study

Objectives To describe the evolution of radiographic abnormalities of the spine in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Methods Patients with AS were followed prospectively with 2 yearly radiographs for 12 years. The modified Stoke Ankylosing Spondylitis Spine Score (mSASSS) was scored by two readers (R1 and R2). New syndesmophytes at uninvolved vertebral corners were computed. Radiographic progression was investigated using generalised estimating equations. Results 809 radiographs (presenting 520 at 2 yearly intervals) from 186 patients (70% men, mean age 43 (SD 12) years, mean 20 (SD 12) years since symptom onset and 83% HLA-B27 positive) were included. Mean mSASSS at baseline was 11.6 (16.2). While the course of progression in individual patients was highly variable, and still occurred in patients with decades of symptom duration, mean 2 year progression was 2.0 (3.5) mSASSS units. Over the entire follow-up, at least one new syndesmophyte was found in 55% (R1) and 63% (R2) of patients (38% (R1) and 39% (R2) of all intervals). In 24% of patients (39% of intervals), there was no progression. A progression ≥5 mSASSS units occurred in 22% of patients (or in 12% of intervals). At the group level, a linear time course model fitted the data best, with a constant rate over the entire 12 year interval of 0.98 mSASSS units/year. Radiographic progression occurred significantly faster in men, in HLA-B27 positive patients and in patients with a baseline mSASSS≥10. Conclusions Long term radiographic progression in AS is highly variable in the individual patient, more severe in HLA-B27 positive men and still occurs after decades of disease. At the group level, however, progression in AS follows an approximately linear course.
Race and Information Processing in Criminal Trials: Does the Defendant’s Race Affect How the Facts Are Evaluated?

Two studies examined whether a criminal defendant’s race influences Whites’ sensitivity to legally relevant information. In Study 1, prosecution case strength ratings and guilt likelihood ratings were more sensitive to the strength of the defendant’s alibi when he was Black than when he was White, if the experimental task was designed to elicit low processing motivation. Under high motivation, participants were equally sensitive to alibi strength, regardless of defendant race. In Study 2, the alibi strength manipulation was replaced with a manipulation of the effectiveness of the district attorney’s cross-examination. As predicted, defense case strength ratings were more sensitive to the strength of the prosecutor’s cross-examination with a Black defendant than with a White defendant—under low motivation. Under high motivation, sensitivity did not depend on defendant race. These results suggest that a Black defendant can elicit greater sensitivity to legally relevant information than will a White defendant.