Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determination of the Effective Elastic Modulus for Nodular Cast Iron Using the Boundary Element Method

In this work, a multiscale homogenization procedure using the boundary element method (BEM) for modeling a two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) multiphase microstructure is presented. A numerical routine is specially written for modeling nodular cast iron (NCI) considering the graphite nodules as cylindrical and real geometries. The BEM is used as a numerical approach for solving the elastic problem of a representative volume element from a mean field model. Numerical models for NCI have generally been developed considering the graphite nodules as voids due to their soft feature. In this sense, three numerical models are developed, and the homogenization procedure is carried out considering the graphite nodules as non-voids. Experimental tensile, hardness, and microhardness tests are performed to determine the mechanical properties of the overall material, matrix, and inclusion nodules, respectively. The nodule sizes, distributions, and chemical compositions are determined by laser scanning microscopy, an X-ray computerized microtomography system (micro-CT), and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, respectively. For the numerical model with real inclusions, the boundary mesh is obtained from micro-CT data. The effective properties obtained by considering the real and synthetic nodules’ geometries are compared with those obtained from the experimental work and the existing literature. The final results considering both approaches demonstrate a good agreement.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Harnessing the Public Health Skill Set in a New Era of Health Reforms and Investment.

The implementation of the Affordable Care Act and major reforms of the health system have resulted in rapid proliferation of innovation-driven start-up companies in the health sector. These start-ups typically focus on the application of new technologies to improve a narrow selection of health services, or some aspect of patient self-efficacy, attempting to reduce the cost of services, increase patient competence, or improve health care delivery writ large. It is time for the field of public health to engage with this industry and work to direct its energies to tackling major health challenges. The rapid growth of these companies suggests a strong potential market for these services. The investment in digital health care, such as telehealth, mHealth, or wearable technologies, is one of the fastest-growing health sector markets; in 2015, startup funding for digital health care reached a new investment high of $5.8 billion, a slight increase from $5.2 billion in 2014 and more than double the funding of $2.4 billion in 2013. Some of the major private health systems in the country are also investing in this growing market. Kaiser Permanente Venture, the Kaiser network’s corporate venture capital arm with a dedicated focus on health care investing for more than 15 years, has approximately $400 million of committed capital in these emergent fields.
The Formin-Homology Protein SmDia Interacts with the Src Kinase SmTK and the GTPase SmRho1 in the Gonads of Schistosoma mansoni

Background Schistosomiasis (bilharzia) is a parasitic disease of worldwide significance affecting human and animals. As schistosome eggs are responsible for pathogenesis, the understanding of processes controlling gonad development might open new perspectives for intervention. The Src-like tyrosine-kinase SmTK3 of Schistosoma mansoni is expressed in the gonads, and its pharmacological inhibition reduces mitogenic activity and egg production in paired females in vitro. Since Src kinases are important signal transduction proteins it is of interest to unravel the signaling cascades SmTK3 is involved in to understand its cellular role in the gonads. Methodology and Results Towards this end we established and screened a yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) cDNA library of adult S. mansoni with a bait construct encoding the SH3 (src homology) domain and unique site of SmTK3. Among the binding partners found was a diaphanous homolog (SmDia), which was characterized further. SmDia is a single-copy gene transcribed throughout development with a bias towards male transcription. Its deduced amino acid sequence reveals all diaphanous-characteristic functional domains. Binding studies with truncated SmDia clones identified SmTK3 interaction sites demonstrating that maximal binding efficiency depends on the N-terminal part of the FH1 (formin homology) domain and the inter-domain region of SmDia located upstream of FH1 in combination with the unique site and the SH3 domain of SmTK3, respectively. SmDia also directly interacted with the GTPase SmRho1 of S. mansoni. In situ hybridization experiments finally demonstrated that SmDia, SmRho1, and SmTK3 are transcribed in the gonads of both genders. Conclusion These data provide first evidence for the existence of two cooperating pathways involving Rho and Src that bridge at SmDia probably organizing cytoskeletal events in the reproductive organs of a parasite, and beyond that in gonads of eukaryotes. Furthermore, the FH1 and inter domain region of SmDia have been discovered as binding sites for the SH3 and unique site domains of SmTK3, respectively.
Water absorption analysis on impregnated kenaf with nanosilica for epoxy/kenaf composite

Due to the existence of hydroxyl group from cellulose and hemicellulose in natural fibre, it has a high tendency to absorb significant amount of water. Nanosilica has high surface area due to its nanosize, which is capable to seal the fibre’s pores. In this work, impregnation technique was used to fill the pores of kenaf fibre with nanosilica in order to reduce the water uptake of the resulting composite. To impregnate the randomly orientated kenaf fibres with nanosilica, the fibres were initially degassed in a plastic container to enable the inclusion of nanosilica to fill the fibre pores. Then nanosilica/epoxy mixture was infused into the container and left under vacuum condition for 24 hours. The hardener was then applied onto the fibres before being hot pressed to aid the curing process. For the water absorption test, the specimens were dried before being placed in a glass container filled distilled water and regularly weighed until approximately 80 days. Like any other kenaf reinforced epoxy, the specimens absorbed water at a rapid rate in the beginning before slowing down and approaching equilibrium. The maximum water absorption rates were 14.4% and 12.9% for specimens with composition of 50 vol% kenaf, 5 vol% nanosilica and 60 vol% kenaf, 5 vol% nanosilica, respectively. Specimens with nanosilica infused but not impregnated had shown a significantly higher water absorption rates at 24.5% and 29.6% respectively. These results show that nanosilica can help reduce the water absorption rate of the natural fibres by blocking the pores of the fibres rendering them unable to absorb water.
A Flowchart Language for Quantum Programming

Several high-level quantum programming languages have been proposed in the previous research. In this paper, we define a low-level flowchart language for quantum programming, which can be used in implementation of high-level quantum languages and in design of quantum compilers. The formal semantics of the flowchart language is given, and the notion of correctness for programs written in this language is introduced. A structured quantum programming theorem is presented, which provides a technique of translating quantum flowchart programs into programs written in a high-level language, namely, a quantum extension of the while-language.
IFN-γ–Dependent Activation of Macrophages during Experimental Infections by Mycobacterium ulcerans Is Impaired by the Toxin Mycolactone

Buruli ulcer, caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans infections, is a necrotizing skin disease whose pathogenesis is associated with the exotoxin mycolactone. Despite the relevance of this emergent disease, little is known on the immune response against the pathogen. Following the recent demonstration of an intramacrophage growth phase for M. ulcerans, we investigated the biological relevance of IFN-γ and the antimycobacterial mechanisms activated by this cytokine in M. ulcerans-infected macrophages. Three M. ulcerans strains were tested: 5114 (mutant mycolactone-negative, avirulent strain); 94–1327 (intermediate virulence); and 98–912 (high virulence). We show in this study that IFN-γ is expressed in mouse-infected tissues and that IFN-γ–deficient mice display increased susceptibility to infection with strains 5114 and, to a lesser extent, 94–1327, but not with the highly virulent strain. Accordingly, IFN-γ–activated cultured macrophages controlled the proliferation of the avirulent and the intermediate virulent strains. Addition of mycolactone purified from strain 98–912 to cultures of IFN-γ–activated macrophages infected with the mycolactone-negative strain led to a dose-dependent inhibition of the IFN-γ–induced protective mechanisms, involving phagosome maturation/acidification and increased NO production, therefore resulting in increased bacterial burdens. Our findings suggest that the protection mediated by IFN-γ in M. ulcerans-infected macrophages is impaired by the local buildup of mycolactone.
Alcohol consumption, metabolic cardiovascular risk factors and hypertension in women.

BACKGROUND Low to moderate alcohol consumption is associated with reduced mortality, primarily due to a reduction in coronary heart disease (CHD). Conversely, heavy drinking increases mortality, mainly due to haemorrhagic stroke and non-cardiovascular diseases. It is important to identify the threshold of alcohol consumption above which the balance of risk and benefit becomes adverse. We examine the relationship between reported alcohol consumption, cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, a 10-year CHD risk score and hypertension in women. METHODS In all, 14 077 female employees aged 30-64 years, underwent screening for CVD risk factors. Information was available on a range of personal and lifestyle factors, including height, weight, blood pressure, lipids, lipoproteins, apolipoproteins and blood glucose. Age-adjusted means were computed for the risk factors in each of five groups of reported alcohol intake: <1 (non-drinkers), 1-7, 8-14, 15-21, > or = 22 units/week. The relationships between alcohol and a derived coronary risk score and hypertension were also examined. RESULTS Increasing consumption was associated with an age-adjusted increase in high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and apolipoprotein A1 (both P < 0.001), a decline in body mass index, total cholesterol (TC), TC/HDL-C ratio, low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and apolipoprotein B (all P < 0.001), and no trend in triglycerides (P = 0.06), lipoprotein (a) (P = 0.09) or fasting glucose (P = 0.14). Except for LDL-C (P = 0.06) the relationships remained statistically significant after adjustment for possible confounders. Compared to non-drinkers, there was a decrease in 10-year CHD risk with increasing consumption, with the greatest reduction in risk in women consuming 1-7 units/week, odds ratio (OR) = 0.79, (95% CI: 0.72-0.87), and an increase in the prevalence of hypertension among those consuming 15-21 units/week, OR = 1.68, (95% CI: 1.14-2.46). CONCLUSIONS This study provides biological support for an inverse association between alcohol intake and CHD in women, associated with favourable changes in lipid and lipoprotein risk factors. Women consuming 1-14 units/week had a reduction in CHD risk, but there was an increased prevalence of hypertension among those consuming > or = 15 units/week. These data suggest that, in terms of the reduced risk of CVD, women should be advised to restrict their alcohol consumption to < or = 14 units/week.
Ranking under temporal constraints

This paper introduces the notion of temporally constrained ranked retrieval, which, given a query and a time constraint, produces the best possible ranked list within the specified time limit. Naturally, more time should translate into better results, but the ranking algorithm should always produce some results. This property is desirable from a number of perspectives: to cope with diverse users and information needs, as well as to better manage system load and variance in query execution times. We propose two temporally constrained ranking algorithms based on a class of probabilistic prediction models that can naturally incorporate efficiency constraints: one that makes independent feature selection decisions, and the other that makes joint feature selection decisions. Experiments on three different test collections show that both ranking algorithms are able to satisfy imposed time constraints, although the joint model outperforms the independent model in being able to deliver more effective results, especially under tight time constraints, due to its ability to capture feature dependencies.
Nuclear Protein Phosphatase-1 Regulates HIV-1 Transcription*

We recently reported that protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) dephosphorylates RNA polymerase II C-terminal repeats and regulates HIV-1 transcription in vitro. Here we provide evidence that PP1 is also required for Tat-induced HIV-1 transcription and for viral replication in cultured cells. Inhibition of PP1 by overexpression of nuclear inhibitor of PP1 (NIPP1) inhibited Tat-induced HIV-1 transcription in transient transfection assays. A mutant of NIPP1 that was defective in binding to PP1 did not have this effect. Also the co-expression of PP1γ reversed the inhibitory effect of NIPP1. Adeno-associated virus-mediated delivery of NIPP1 significantly reduced HIV-1 transcription induced by Tat-expressing adenovirus in CD4+ HeLa cells that contained an integrated HIV-1 promoter (HeLa MAGI cells). In addition, infection of HeLa MAGI cells with adeno-associated virus-NIPP1 prior to the infection with HIV-1 significantly reduced the level of HIV-1 replication. Our results indicate that PP1 might be a host cell factor that is required for HIV-1 viral transcription. Therefore, nuclear PP1 may represent a novel target for anti-HIV-1 therapeutics.
The Case for an Accelerating Universe from Supernovae

The unexpected faintness of high‐redshift Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), as measured by two teams, has been interpreted as evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. We review the current challenges to this interpretation and seek to answer whether the cosmological implications are compelling. We discuss future observations of SNe Ia which could offer extraordinary evidence to test acceleration.
Influence of Elastic Deformation of Particles on Heckel Analysis

The Heckel equation is one of the most useful equations for describing the compaction properties of pharmaceutical powders. Important material properties (e.g., yield strength) of powders can be derived using Heckel analysis. Two types of Heckel analysis are in common use. One is the “out-of-die,” or “zero-pressure” method, the other is the “in-die” or “at-pressure” method. Because particles undergo elastic deformation under pressure, which tends to lower the porosity of the powder bed, the “out-of-die” method describes powder consolidation and compaction more accurately than the “in-die” method. However, “in-die” Heckel analysis has been widely used because of the speed and ease of data collection. Using L-lysine monohydrochloride dihydrate as a model compound, this work analyzes quantitatively the effects of elastic deformation on the calculation of porosity of a tablet, and therefore on the Heckel analysis. The effects of a small change in porosity, ε, on Heckel analysis are presented mathematically. It is found that a decrease in porosity of 0.001, when the porosity is lower than 0.05, causes a significant increase in the value of −ln ε. Therefore, data at ε < 0.05 should be interpreted with caution when using Heckel analysis. Elastic deformation causes positive deviations in the Heckel plot, and therefore leads to a yield strength that is lower than the true value. The lower the elastic modulus of the powder, the greater is the deviation from the true value. Therefore, the “in-die” method gives values of yield strength that are significantly lower than the true values for most pharmaceutical powders.
Analysis and Modeling of a Gain-Boosted N-Path Switched-Capacitor Bandpass Filter

It has been studied that, an N-path switched-capacitor (SC) branch driven by an N-phase non-overlapped local oscillator (LO), is equivalent to a tunable parallel-RLC tank suitable for radio-frequency (RF) filtering. This paper proposes a gain-boosted N-path SC bandpass filter (GB-BPF) with a number of sought features. It is based on a transconductance amplifier (Gm) with an N-path SC branch as its feedback network, offering: 1) double RF filtering at the input and output of the Gm in one step; 2) customized passband gain and bandwidth with input-impedance match; and 3) reduced physical capacitance thanks to the loop gain offered by Gm. All have been examined using a RLC model of the SC branch before applying the linear periodically time-variant (LPTV) analysis to derive the R, L, and C expressions and analytically study the harmonic selectivity, harmonic folding, and noise. The latter reveals that: 1) the noise due to the switches is notched at the output, allowing smaller switches to save the LO power and 2) the noises due to the source resistance and Gm are narrowband at the output, reducing the folded noise during harmonic mixing. To study the influence of circuit non-idealities, an intuitive equivalent circuit model is also proposed and verified. The design example is a four-path 0.5-2-GHz GB-BPF simulated with the 65-nm CMOS. It exhibits >11 dB gain, 2.3 dB NF, and +21-dBm out-of-band IIP3 at 150-MHz offset, while consuming just 7 mW of power.
Respiratory Syncytial Virus Activates Innate Immunity through Toll-Like Receptor 2

ABSTRACT Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common cause of infection that is associated with a range of respiratory illnesses, from common cold-like symptoms to serious lower respiratory tract illnesses such as pneumonia and bronchiolitis. RSV is the single most important cause of serious lower respiratory tract illness in children <1 year of age. Host innate and acquired immune responses activated following RSV infection have been suspected to contribute to RSV disease. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) activate innate and acquired immunity and are candidates for playing key roles in the host immune response to RSV. Leukocytes express TLRs, including TLR2, TLR6, TLR3, TLR4, and TLR7, that can interact with RSV and promote immune responses following infection. Using knockout mice, we have demonstrated that TLR2 and TLR6 signaling in leukocytes can activate innate immunity against RSV by promoting tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-6, CCL2 (monocyte chemoattractant protein 1), and CCL5 (RANTES). As previously noted, TLR4 also contributes to cytokine activation (L. M. Haynes, D. D. Moore, E. A. Kurt-Jones, R. W. Finberg, L. J. Anderson, and R. A. Tripp, J. Virol. 75:10730-10737, 2001, and E. A. Kurt-Jones, L. Popova, L. Kwinn, L. M. Haynes, L. P. Jones, R. A. Tripp, E. E. Walsh, M. W. Freeman, D. T. Golenbock, L. J. Anderson, and R. W. Finberg, Nat. Immunol. 1:398-401, 2000). Furthermore, we demonstrated that signals generated following TLR2 and TLR6 activation were important for controlling viral replication in vivo. Additionally, TLR2 interactions with RSV promoted neutrophil migration and dendritic cell activation within the lung. Collectively, these studies indicate that TLR2 is involved in RSV recognition and subsequent innate immune activation.
Prosodic vs. segmental contributions to naturalness in a diphone synthesizer

The relative contributions of segmental versus prosodic factors to the perceived naturalness of synthetic speech was measured by transplanting prosody between natural speech and the output of a diphone synthesizer. A small corpus was created containing matched sentence pairs wherein one member of the pair was a natural utterance and the other was a synthetic utterance generated with diphone data from the same talker. Two additional sentences were formed from each sentence pair by transplanting the prosodic structure between the natural and synthetic members of each pair. In two listening experiments subjects were asked to (a) classify each sentence as “natural” or “synthetic, or (b) rate the naturalness of each sentence. Results showed that the prosodic information was more important than segmental information in both classification and ratings of naturalness.
Optimum pilot pattern for channel estimation in OFDM systems

The performance of channel estimation in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems significantly depends on the pilot signal, which is usually scattered in time and frequency domains. For a given pilot density, the authors optimally design the pilot pattern so as to minimize the mean squared error (MSE) of the channel estimate with the use of a general interpolator. The analytic results are verified by computer simulation.
Collagen Fibrillogenesis in Situ

Collagen stabilizes the structure of most organs and is the major component of tissues such as tendon, cornea, bone, and cartilage. At least 12 different molecular forms of collagen have been isolated from vertebrates. '. ' Type I collagen is the most abundant and has a major role in the stabilization of structure. In tissues, there is a hierarchy in the organization of type I collagen. Collagen molecules are assembled into fibrils, which are collected into bundles, and these in turn are organized into tissue-specific macroaggregates such as regular layers (bone and cornea), irregular layers (skin), and cables (tendons and ligaments). Collagen fibril formation in vivo is a multistep process involving intracellular and extracellular compartments. Intracellularly, collagen is synthesized, and hydroxylation of proline and lysine residues as well as glycosylation occurs in the rough endoplasmic retic~lum. ~. " Mixing of macromolecules may occur during packaging in the Golgi for transport through the cytoplasm in secretory Extracellularly, the propeptides are removed by specific amino and carboxy proteinases, and fibril assembly 0ccurs1'~ Collagen molecules within fibrils undergo covalent intraand intermolecular crosslinking mediated by lysyl oxidase, with the extent of covalent cross-linking increasing with development? ','