Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
X-ray mirror prototype based on cold shaping of thin glass foils

The Slumping Glass Optics technology for the fabrication of astronomical X-ray mirrors has been developed in recent years in USA and Europe. The process has been used for making the mirrors of the Nustar, mission. The process starts with very thin glass foils hot formed to copy the profile of replication moulds. At INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera a process based on cold shaping is being developed, based on an integration method involving the use of interconnecting ribs for making stacks. Each glass foil in the stack is shaped onto a very precise integration mould and the correct shape is frozen by means of glued ribs that act as spacers between one layer and the next one (the first layers being attached to a thick substrate). Therefore, the increasing availability of flexible glass foils with a thickness of a few tens of microns (driven by electronic market for ultra-thin displays) opens new possibilities for the fabrication of X-ray mirrors. This solution appears interesting especially for the fabrication of mirrors for hard X-rays (with energy > 10 keV) based on multilayer coatings, taking advantage from the intrinsic low roughness of the glass foils that should grant a low scattering level. The stress frozen on the glass due to the cold shaping is not negligible, but it is kept into account in the errors of the X-ray optics design. As an exercise, we have considered the requirements and specs of the FORCE hard Xray mission concept (being studied by JAXA) and we have designed the mirror modules assuming the cold slumping as a fabrication method. In the meantime, a prototype (representative of the FORCE mirror modules) is being design and integrated in order to demonstrate the feasibility and the capacity to reach good angular resolution.
The effect of music amplitude on the reaction to unexpected visual events.

The effects of music amplitude on participants' response time to randomly presented, unexpected, visual events were investigated. Ninety participants completed a motor-reaction task without music and with music played at 60, 70, or 80 dBA. Males preferred more intense music than females did, with males selecting a comfort level of 72 dBA and females, 66 dBA. However, participants' reaction time and the total time to respond to a randomly activated red light were independent of gender. All participants responded more quickly when the music was played at 70 dBA (close to their comfort level) than when it played at lower (60 dBA) or higher (80 dBA) amplitudes. It is proposed that people may react more quickly to visual events (e.g., the sudden appearance of a plane on the screen of an air traffic controller, or the unpredictable activation of a car's rear brake lights when driving) with music playing at a volume preset to maintain individual comfort levels against other situational background noise.
Tr1-Like T Cells – An Enigmatic Regulatory T Cell Lineage

The immune system evolved to respond to foreign invaders and prevent autoimmunity to self-antigens. Several types of regulatory T cells facilitate the latter process. These include a subset of Foxp3− CD4+ T cells able to secrete IL-10 in an antigen-specific manner, type 1 regulatory (Tr1) T cells. Although their suppressive function has been confirmed both in vitro and in vivo, their phenotype remains poorly defined. It has been suggested that the surface markers LAG-3 and CD49b are biomarkers for murine and human Tr1 cells. Here, we discuss these findings in the context of our data regarding the expression pattern of inhibitory receptors (IRs) CD49b, TIM-3, PD-1, TIGIT, LAG-3, and ICOS on Tr1-like human T cells generated in vitro from CD4+ memory T cells stimulated with αCD3 and αCD28 antibodies. We found that there were no differences in IR expression between IL-10+ and IL-10− T cells. However, CD4+IL-10+ T cells isolated ex vivo, following a short stimulation and cytokine secretion assay, contained significantly higher proportions of TIM-3+ and PD-1+ cells. They also expressed significantly higher TIGIT mRNA and showed a trend toward increased TIM-3 mRNA levels. These data led us to conclude that large pools of IRs may be stored intracellularly; hence, they may not represent ideal candidates as cell surface biomarkers for Tr1-like T cells.
Lending an Ear to the Market-The Credit Spread to Duration as a Measure of Financial Constraints

I introduce a new market-based approach to quantify a firm’s exposure to financial constraints. The resulting measure that I call Credit Spread to Duration is a firmspecific, time-varying, continuous variable that captures the financial market’s evaluation of the respective firm’s soundness. To my knowledge this is the first measure of financial constraints that is independent of any ex ante judgment on the respective firm’s ability to raise external capital. I contribute to the empirical finance literature by providing an objective method to verify the consistency of measures of financial constraints most commonly used in the literature. On the one hand I compare my empirical results to cash-flow sensitivity related measures that are based upon the seminal paper by Fazzari et al. (1988) and used by e.g. Almeida et al. (2004) and Erel et al. (2015). On the other hand I evaluate the measures of financial constraints proposed by Kaplan and Zingales (1997), Lamont et al. (2001), Whited and Wu (2006) and Hadlock and Pierce (2010).
Subsentential Sentiment on a Shoestring: A Crosslingual Analysis of Compositional Classification

Sentiment analysis has undergone a shift from document-level analysis, where labels expresses the sentiment of a whole document or whole sentence, to subsentential approaches, which assess the contribution of individual phrases, in particular including the composition of sentiment terms and phrases such as negators and intensifiers. Starting from a small sentiment treebank modeled after the Stanford Sentiment Treebank of Socher et al. (2013), we investigate suitable methods to perform compositional sentiment classification for German in a data-scarce setting, harnessing cross-lingual methods as well as existing general-domain lexical resources.
Methylergometrine, an Active Metabolite of Methysergide

In conscious dogs methysergide (MS) caused constriction of the saphenous vein at about 3000 times lower doses than methylergometrine (MT) when infused locally, but it elicited only a short-lasting venoconstrictor response when injected systemically intravenously. MS and MT proved to be equally active venoconstrictor agents when administered orally. Analysis of canine plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography showed that after both oral and intravenous administration of MS large amounts of MT appeared in the plasma whereas only low and transient levels of MS could be detected. It is suggested that one of the first steps in metabolism of MS is demethylation at position 1 of the indole, leading to the formation of MT, which may be a main active principle of the therapeutic effectiveness of MS in the interval treatment of migraine headache.
HIGH-DENSITY POLYETHYLENE-BASED COMPOSITES WITH PRESSURE-TREATED WOOD FIBERS

High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)-based composites with alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ)- and micronized copper quaternary (MCQ)-treated wood fibers were manufactured through injection molding. The mechanical properties, water absorption, and biological resistance properties of the fabricated composites with different coupling treatments were investigated. Composites with ACQ- and MCQ-treated wood had mechanical properties comparable with those made of untreated wood. The different coupling agents worked well for the treated wood materials. Similar water absorption behaviors were observed for the HDPE composites containing treated wood and those containing untreated wood. The results of the termite test showed that the composites containing untreated wood had slightly more weight loss. The decay test revealed that the composites containing treated wood had less decay fungal growth on the surfaces, compared with samples from untreated wood, indicating enhanced decay resistance for the composites from the treated material. The stable mechanical properties and improved biological performances of the composites containing treated wood demonstrated the feasibility of making wood-plastic composites with pressure-treated wood materials, and thus offered a practical way to recycle treated wood into value-added composites.
Identification of common surface antigens among Babesia bigemina isolates by using monoclonal antibodies

SUMMARY A group of monoclonal antibodies (MAb) was used to immunochemically characterize Babesia bigemina surface components. Two surface reactive MAb by an IFAT test were subsequently shown to bind to epitopes on the external surface of the parasite plasma membrane as evidenced by immunoelectron microscopy. Parasite components with relative sizes of 68, 62, 60, 58, 56, 54, 51, 49, 48, 47, 43, 36 kDa were identified with the group of MAb in at least 6 geographically different B. bigemina isolates. The antigenic components were demonstrated to be species-specific and apparently predominant. Both polyclonal antibodies (immune bovine serum) and highly diluted MAb specifically reacted with such bands producing a strong signal in Western blots.
Real‐time viability and apoptosis kinetic detection method of 3D multicellular tumor spheroids using the Celigo Image Cytometer

The development of three‐dimensional (3D) multicellular tumor spheroid models for cancer drug discovery research has increased in the recent years. The use of 3D tumor spheroid models may be more representative of the complex in vivo tumor microenvironments in comparison to two‐dimensional (2D) assays. Currently, viability of 3D multicellular tumor spheroids has been commonly measured on standard plate‐readers using metabolic reagents such as CellTiter‐Glo® for end point analysis. Alternatively, high content image cytometers have been used to measure drug effects on spheroid size and viability. Previously, we have demonstrated a novel end point drug screening method for 3D multicellular tumor spheroids using the Celigo Image Cytometer. To better characterize the cancer drug effects, it is important to also measure the kinetic cytotoxic and apoptotic effects on 3D multicellular tumor spheroids. In this work, we demonstrate the use of PI and caspase 3/7 stains to measure viability and apoptosis for 3D multicellular tumor spheroids in real‐time. The method was first validated by staining different types of tumor spheroids with PI and caspase 3/7 and monitoring the fluorescent intensities for 16 and 21 days. Next, PI‐stained and nonstained control tumor spheroids were digested into single cell suspension to directly measure viability in a 2D assay to determine the potential toxicity of PI. Finally, extensive data analysis was performed on correlating the time‐dependent PI and caspase 3/7 fluorescent intensities to the spheroid size and necrotic core formation to determine an optimal starting time point for cancer drug testing. The ability to measure real‐time viability and apoptosis is highly important for developing a proper 3D model for screening tumor spheroids, which can allow researchers to determine time‐dependent drug effects that usually are not captured by end point assays. This would improve the current tumor spheroid analysis method to potentially better identify more qualified cancer drug candidates for drug discovery research. © 2017 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry
The Wear of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyester Composite Materials at Different Loads and Speeds

Glass fiber reinforced polyester (GFRP) materials which are polymer matrix composites have some properties such as high specific strength, excellent elasticity, low weight, high corrosion resistance, high chemical resistance and high thermal stability. One of most important causes of failure of mechanical parts is wear. It is a surface property that can be reduced by changing the surface chemistries of the materials and microstructures. For this reason GFRP materials should be investigated not only for their mechanical properties but also for their tribological behaviours. The aim of this study is investigation of effects of different fillers and resins materials on adhesive wear properties of GFRP at different loads and speeds. In the sample production, different resins (reactive orthophtalic polyesters), reinforcing materials and fillers (glass beads, alumina) are used. Initially, the samples were subjected to adhesive wear tests on two different loads (F=10N, F=20N) and two different speeds (n=100rpm, n=200rpm) at 150m sliding distance. The friction force and friction coefficient were measured during the test on tribometer. The densities of samples were measured. In the next step, the wear trace thicknesses were measured and the wear rates were calculated. In results, the addition of glass beads to plain orthophtalic polyester resin reduced wear rate. The influence of load effect on wear behavior of samples is more the influence of speed.
Self-efficacy and relapse in smoking cessation programs.

The utility and validity of Bandura's self-efficacy theory and Marlatt's theoretical model of relapse were evaluated in a study of 78 cigarette smokers from two different cessation programs. Pretreatment, posttreatment, and follow-up assessments of smoking behavior, self-efficacy, and mood states were obtained. Efficacy state was found to be significantly enhanced as the result of both treatment programs. Subjects' scores on the seven clusters from the posttreatment efficacy state inventory were used as predictor variables in a multiple regression analysis to predict which subjects would relapse and how long, on a dichotomous time variable, they would remain abstinent before relapse. Multiple correlations, corrected for shrinkage, were . 57 for relapse and . 69 for time to relapse. A microanalysis revealed an extremely high correspondence between the cluster of smoking situations in which relapsing subjects experienced a low degree of selfefficacy and the situation in which relapse first occurred (weighted kappa = .89). Analysis of mood and efficacy data during follow-up indicated that relapsing subjects demonstrated aspects of a cognitive dissonance reaction and a personal attribution effect that were consistent with Marlatt's description of the abstinence violation effect. Research and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.
Effect of germination time on proximate analysis, bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) sprouts.

BACKGROUND The lentil plant, Lens culinaris L. , is a member of the Leguminoceae family and constitutes one of the most important traditional dietary components. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of sprouting for 3, 4, 5 and 6 days on proximate, bioactive compounds and antioxidative characteristics of lentil (Lens culinaris) sprouts. MATERIAL AND METHODS Lentil seeds were soaked in distilled water (1:10, w/v) for 12 h at room temperature (~25°C), then kept between thick layers of cotton cloth and allowed to germinate in the dark for 3, 4, 5 and 6 days. The nutritional composition, protein solubility, free amino acids, antinutritional factors, bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of raw and germinated samples were determined using standard official procedures. RESULTS Sprouting process caused significant (P ≤ 0.05) increases in moisture, protein, ash, crude fiber, protein solubility, free amino acids, total, reducing and nonreducing sugars. However, oil content, antinutritional factors (tannins and phytic acid) significantly (P ≤ 0.05) decreased. Results indicated that total essential amino acids of lentil seeds protein formed 38.10% of the total amino acid content. Sulfur-containing amino acids were the first limiting amino acid, while threonine was the second limiting amino acid in raw and germinated lentil seeds. Sprouting process has a positive effect on the essential amino acid contents and protein efficiency ratio (PER) of lentil sprouts. Phenolics content increased from 1341.13 mg/100 g DW in raw lentil seeds to 1411.50, 1463.00, 1630.20 and 1510.10 in those samples germinated for 3, 4, 5 and 6 days, respectively. Sprouted seeds had higher DPPH radical scavenging and reducing power activities. CONCLUSIONS Based on these results, sprouting process is recommended to increase nutritive value, and antioxidant activity of lentil seeds.
The central mechanism of hypothalamic–pituitary– adrenocortical system hyperfunction in depressed patients

While hypercortisolemia is commonly observed in depression, exactly where in the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical (H–P–A) axis this dysfunction arises remains undefined. In attempting to distinguish between central or peripheral locus of dysfunction, we studied in 12 patients (10 females, two males) with primary major depression and eight age‐matched controls (six females, two males) in their adrenal cortisol response to infused adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) (cosyntropin 0.05 μg/kg bodyweight) while endogenous ACTH was suppressed with 1 mg of dexamethasone. Compared with the control group, pre‐dexamethasone plasma baseline cortisol level was significantly higher in depressed patients while ACTH level remained normal. Post‐dexamethasone responses of both hormones were greatly non‐suppressed in the depressed group. Exogenous cosyntropin‐elicited rise in plasma cortisol was significantly lower in depressed patients while the ACTH response was not significantly different. These findings suggest that an adrenal cortisol response to ACTH was significantly decreased during depression as compared with normals in Chinese depressed patients. Therefore, the central mechanism of hyperfunctioning H–P–A axis causing hypercortisolemia should be emphasized.
Study of inclusive production of charmonium mesons in B decays

The inclusive production of charmonium mesons in B meson decay has been studied in a 20.3 fb{sup -1} data set collected by the BABAR experiment operating at the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance. Branching fractions have been measured for the inclusive production of the charmonium mesons J/{psi}, {psi}(2S), {chi}{sub c1}, and {chi}{sub c2}. The branching fractions are also presented as a function of the center-of-mass momentum of the mesons and of the helicity of the J/{psi}.
Fair and Efficient Social Choice in Dynamic Settings

We study a dynamic social choice problem in which an alternative is chosen at each round according to the reported valuations of a set of agents. In the interests of obtaining a solution that is both efficient and fair, we aim to maximize the long-term Nash welfare, which is the product of all agents’ utilities. We present and analyze two greedy algorithms for this problem, including the classic Proportional Fair (PF) algorithm. We analyze several versions of the algorithms and how they relate, and provide an axiomatization of PF. Finally, we evaluate the algorithms on data gathered from a computer systems application.
LIME: Low-Light Image Enhancement via Illumination Map Estimation

When one captures images in low-light conditions, the images often suffer from low visibility. Besides degrading the visual aesthetics of images, this poor quality may also significantly degenerate the performance of many computer vision and multimedia algorithms that are primarily designed for high-quality inputs. In this paper, we propose a simple yet effective low-light image enhancement (LIME) method. More concretely, the illumination of each pixel is first estimated individually by finding the maximum value in R, G, and B channels. Furthermore, we refine the initial illumination map by imposing a structure prior on it, as the final illumination map. Having the well-constructed illumination map, the enhancement can be achieved accordingly. Experiments on a number of challenging low-light images are present to reveal the efficacy of our LIME and show its superiority over several state-of-the-arts in terms of enhancement quality and efficiency.
Prevalence of Tobacco Consumption and Its Contributing Factors among Students of a Private Medical College in Belgaum: A Cross Sectional Study

Background Tobacco consumption epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats that the world is facing and attracts the attention of researchers to identify the cause for the same in specific groups. Medical students act as mentors to fight against tobacco use, but several reports suggest that a good number of medical undergraduates are themselves addicted to tobacco use. Thus, the objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of tobacco consumption and its association with various factors among undergraduate medical students. Materials and Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 372 undergraduate medical students from first to fourth year during November 2013 to January 2015. A pre-designed, pre-tested, structured and self-administered questionnaire was used. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software version 16. Data was analyzed for percentage, Chi-square test and regression analysis to find association between tobacco use and various independent variables. Result The mean age of the participants was 21.2 (SD=2.28) years with a male-female ratio of 1.92:1. The prevalence of tobacco use was 27.1% (n=101). The overall prevalence of smoking and smokeless tobacco use was 22.6% (n=84) and 7.8% (n=29) respectively. The prevalence of current tobacco use was 24.2% (n=90). Among the ever tobacco users, about 3% (n=11) had quit using tobacco. Tobacco consumption was observed to be significantly associated with male gender (p<.001), increasing age (p<0.01), residing in hostels (p<.001) and with a parental history of using tobacco (p<.001). Conclusion The prevalence of tobacco use in smoking and smokeless form among undergraduate medical students was high.This has important implications in the strict implementation and monitoring of smoking-related rules in hostels of medical colleges, especially those related to peer-support.
EMI Filter Design for a 1 MHz, 10 kW Three-Phase/Level PWM Rectifier

The attenuation characteristics of electromagnetic interference (EMI) filters in practice often differ from theoretical predictions and minor changes can result in a significant improvement in performance. The performance of the differential-mode (DM) filter stage can usually be well predicted, but the common mode (CM) behavior is more difficult to handle. This is especially true for three-phase pulsewidth modulation (PWM) rectifier systems, which inherently show a large high-frequency CM voltage at the rectifier output. Possible CM noise current paths of a three-phase/level PWM rectifier are analyzed in this paper where parasitic capacitances to the heat sink and to earth are considered. In addition, a concept to significantly reduce CM emissions is discussed in detail. Based on the proposed models, an EMI filter design for a system with 1 MHz switching frequency is shown. Experimental verification of the designed EMI filter is presented by impedance and conducted emission (CE) measurements taken from a 10 kW prototype. Several practical aspects of filter implementation such as component arrangement, shielding layers, magnetic coupling, etc., are discussed and verified by measurements.