Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fitness Landscapes

Fitness landscapes are a valuable concept in evolutionary biology, combinatorial optimization, and the physics of disordered systems. A fitness landscape is a mapping from a configuration space that is equipped with some notion of adjacency, nearness, distance or accessibility, into the real numbers. Landscape theory has emerged as an attempt to devise suitable mathematical structures for describing the “static” properties of landscapes as well as their influence on the dynamics of adaptation. This chapter gives a brief overview on recent developments in this area, focusing on “geometrical” properties of landscapes.
Explorations of the r-Processes: Comparisons between Calculations and Observations of Low-Metallicity Stars

Abundances of heavier elements (barium and beyond) in many neutron-capture-element-rich halo stars accurately replicate the solar system r-process pattern. However, abundances of lighter neutron-capture elements in these stars are not consistent with the solar system pattern. These comparisons suggest contributions from two distinct types of r-process synthesis events, a so-called main r-process for the elements above the second r-process peak and a weak r-process for the lighter neutron-capture elements. We have performed r-process theoretical predictions to further explore the implications of the solar and stellar observations. We find that the isotopic composition of barium and the elemental Ba/Eu abundance ratios in r-process-rich low-metallicity stars can only be matched by computations in which the neutron densities are in the range 23 ≲ log nn ≲ 28, values typical of the main r-process. For r-process conditions that successfully generate the heavy element pattern extending down to A = 135, the relative abundance of 129I produced in this mass region appears to be at least ~90% of the observed solar value. Finally, in the neutron number density ranges required for production of the observed solar/stellar third r-process-peak (A ≈ 200), the predicted abundances of interpeak element hafnium (Z = 72, A ≈ 177-180) follow closely those of third-peak elements and lead. Hf, observable from the ground and close in mass number to the third r-process-peak elements, might also be used as part of a new nuclear chronometer pair, Th/Hf, for stellar age determinations.
Ethnic variations in the provision of biologic therapy for Crohn's disease: a Freedom of Information study

In this study, we investigate whether the provision of biologic therapy for Crohn's disease is equitable across South Asian and English groups in NHS Trusts, which serve areas with significant ethnic variation. Data were requested from 10 NHS Trusts using a Freedom of Information (FOI) approach. Details of numbers of patients by ethnicity treated with infliximab or adalumimab for Crohn's disease between 2010 and 2012 were requested. Using population-based estimates of disease prevalence and Census data on population structure, observed and expected numbers who should have received treatment were calculated. In three Trusts, the number of South Asian patients who received such treatment was significantly less than British/White patients. These were: Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust covering Oldham and North Manchester, Barking, Havering & Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. The study is limited by several factors: The only data available on prevalence in both English and South Asian communities comes from Leicester and was published in 1993. More recent data suggests that the prevalence of Crohn's disease now approaches 150/105 compared to the 76/105 for English patients which was recorded in Leicester. However, the two subsequent studies on prevalence which were published in 2000 from the North of England and 2010 from Scotland do not provide a breakdown by ethnicity. The data were collected by administrative staff using a variety of approaches to their Trust's data bases and so the techniques used in each Trust are not comparable. In addition, studies from elsewhere suggest that the quality of FOI data is affected by the motivation of staff who collect the data. With the exception of Leicester, there was no quality check on the accuracy of the data. In Leicester, 139 patients were on a register of biologic therapy and this compared with 343 patients reported by the FOI request. However, the proportions of patients by type of treatment and by ethnicity were comparable in the two data sets. This suggests that the data on ethnic differences reported by the FOI study reflects real differences. Clearly, there are South Asian communities where patients with Crohn's disease appear not to receive appropriate treatment in the form of biologics, and the reasons behind this need further consideration and investigation. We need to develop robust methods of monitoring the provision of biologic therapy across ethnic groups and communities. It is unacceptable for there to be a difference based on such grounds.
Experimental process pressure analysis for model-based manufacturing of composites by resin transfer moulding

An experimental study of the process pressure characteristics prevailing in an RTM mould during the preform impregnation stage is presented. The pressure data is analysed with respect to a superposition of preform compaction and hydraulic fluid pressure. A methodology is proposed to isolate the hydraulic fluid pressure from the preform compaction pressure involving knowledge about the compressibility behaviour of the reinforcing material. For this purpose, the preform compressibility and relaxation behavior was studied by means of transverse compaction tests on both, unsaturated as well as the saturated sample stacks. The resulting isolated hydraulic fluid pressure is finally compared with numerical predictions derived from flow simulations, revealing good overall agreement. The findings of this work will contribute to realize the concept of model-based processing of fibre-reinforced polymer composites by means of the RTM process.
Peak-End Memory Bias in Laboratory-Induced Dyspnea: A Comparison of Patients With Medically Unexplained Symptoms and Healthy Controls

Objective Memory for unpleasant experiences is dominated by intensity at the experience’s peak and end, with a relative neglect for its duration. Therefore, unpleasant somatic experiences are expected be remembered as less aversive when they end gradually rather than abruptly, even when they last longer (i.e., the “peak-end effect”). We investigated the peak-end effect for dyspnea in healthy participants and in patients with medically unexplained dyspnea (MUD). Methods Two aversive dyspnea-inducing tasks were administered to a clinical MUD sample (n = 29) and a matched healthy control group (n = 29) using a rebreathing paradigm (60-second room air, 150-second rebreathing). In a short trial, the breathing system (mouthpiece) was removed immediately after peak dyspnea. In a long trial, breathing was switched to room air after peak dyspnea and continued in the breathing system for 150 seconds (order was counterbalanced across participants). Respiratory parameters were continuously measured, and dyspnea was rated every 10 seconds. Relative unpleasantness of the dyspneic episode was assessed with forced choice questions. Results More than 70% of the healthy group found the short episode worse than the long one despite equal maximal dyspnea (p = .02). Patients with MUD did not show this peak-end effect (p = .58). The latter had deficient recovery of dyspnea compared with the controls (42.08 [21.86] versus 17.51 [11.18], p < .001), which could not be explained by differences in respiratory physiology. Conclusions The peak-end effect in dyspnea has important implications for dyspnea measurement. Its absence in patients with MUD suggests a critical role of distorted perceptual-cognitive processing of aversive somatic sensations in patients with medically unexplained symptoms.
Linking Linear Threshold Units with Quadratic Models of Motion Perception

Behavioral experiments on insects (Hassenstein and Reichardt 1956; Poggio and Reichardt 1976) as well as psychophysical evidence from human studies (Van Santen and Sperling 1985; Adelson and Bergen 1985; Watson and Ahumada 1985) support the notion that short-range motion perception is mediated by a system with a quadratic type of nonlinearity, as in correlation (Hassenstein and Reichardt 1956), multiplication (Torre and Poggio 1978), or squaring (Adelson and Bergen 1985). However, there is little physiological evidence for quadratic nonlinearities in directionally selective cells. For instance, the response of cortical simple cells to a moving sine grating is half-wave instead of full-wave rectified as it should be for a quadratic nonlinearity (Movshon ef al. 1978; Holub and Morton-Gibson 1981) and is linear for low contrast (Holub and Morton-Gibson 1981). Complex cells have full-wave rectified responses, but are also linear in contrast. Moreover, a detailed theoretical analysis of possible biophysical mechanisms underlying direction selectivity concludes that most do not have quadratic properties except under very limited conditions (Grzywacz and Koch 1987). Thus, it is presently mysterious how a system can show quadratic properties while its individual components do not. We briefly discuss here a simple population encoding scheme offering a possible solution to this problem.
Tribological investigation of tetrahedral diamond-like carbon (ta-C DLC) coatings using vegetable oil containing anti-wear additives / Abdul Mannan

Friction and wear are considered as the nuance for machineries and need to reduce as much as possible. Use of proper lubricants and the treatment of interfacial surfaces can be a way of reducing both friction and wear. This study is about the tribological performance of tetrahedral diamond-like carbon (ta-C DLC) coating where the investigations were performed in Steel/Steel, Steel/DLC and DLC/DLC contacts in the presence of canola oil with and/or without additives. The Steel/Steel contact was investigated as the reference contact. The results varied between contacts and oils such as the coefficient of friction (COF) in Steel/Steel, Steel/DLC and DLC/DLC contacts under base oil was 0.062, 0.059 and 0.048, and under additivated oil was 0.066, 0.067 and 0.058 respectively. Both oils showed lowest wear in Steel/Steel contact and the Steel/DLC and DLC/DLC contact showed approximately 76% and 8% higher wear than Steel/Steel contact respectively when tested with base oil. The wear reduced in all contacts under additivated oil and this was higher in metal containing contacts such as approximately 79% in Steel/Steel, 66% in Steel/DLC and 60% in DLC/DLC contact. The wear reduction by additives might be due to the chemical absorption with steel and physical absorption with DLC surface as DLCs are known as “non-reactive”. The agglomeration of transferred particles in Steel/DLC under base oil was not found when tested with additivated oil. The damage of coating in DLC/DLC was not present when tested with additivated oil. Therefore, it can be said that the tribological properties can be improved applying DLC coating and further improvement can be done by additivating the base oils.
RF energy harvesting system and circuits for charging of mobile devices

RF energy harvesting holds a promise able future for generating a small amount of electrical power to drive partial circuits in wirelessly communicating electronics devices. This paper presents the overview and progress achieved in RF energy harvesting field. A modified form of existing CMOS based voltage doubler circuit is presented to achieve 160% increase in output power over traditional circuits at 0 dBm input power. A schottky diode based RF energy harvesting circuit performance is also studied with practical and simulations results.
Theoretical and numerical investigation on in-plane impact performance of chiral honeycomb core structure

Honeycomb materials have been widely used as energy absorbers in structural impact protection and it can be tailored to shrink in the vicinity of impact zone, which contributes to better impact resistance. The chiral honeycomb is characterized by a non-intuitive negative in-plane Poisson’s ratio (auxeticity), for the hexagonal chiral honeycomb, which exhibits a theoretic value of . However, the comprehensive study of the performance of chiral honeycomb under impact has not been studied to date. In this paper, firstly, the theoretical solution of yield stress for chiral honeycomb was obtained in terms of quasi-static loading. Thereafter, the in-plane dynamic crushing and energy-absorption capabilities of chiral honeycomb were studied numerically by means of finite element (FE) method. A comparative study between the chiral honeycomb and conventional hexagonal honeycomb was also performed to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the two materials. In addition, a parametric study was conducted to investigate the effects of geometric topologies and impact scenarios on the response of chiral honeycomb. The numerical results show that the performance of plastic energy dissipation of chiral honeycomb is dependent not only on structural parameters but also on crushing velocities. The present study is committed to providing an important reference to the application of chiral honeycomb in the crashworthiness design.
THE INFLUENCE OF STEEL SLAG WITH VARIABLE PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTION ON THE WORKABILITY AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE

The present research investigated the influence of steel slag (SS) with variable particle size on the workability and mechanical properties of concrete. Different SS size ranges (0-15 μm, 15-30 μm, 30-45 μm and 45-80 μm) were obtained by sieving and then were characterised by a laser particle size analyser and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The slump, compressive strength, pore structures and thermal analysis were used to evaluate the effect of the SS particle size on cement and concrete properties. The experimental results showed that finer SS (0-15 μm and 15-30 μm) resulted in negative effects on the workability, while 30-45 μm and 45-80 μm SS particles presented completely opposite results. Both of these effects were more apparent as the steel slag replacement ratio was increased up to 30 wt. %. Concrete samples with 0-15 μm and 45-80 μm SS particles presented comparable 7and 28-day compressive strength to the control concrete when their replacement ratios were less than 10 wt. %. Moreover, the concrete samples with 45-80 μm SS particles at 5 % dosage developed the highest compressive strengths at 7 and 28 days, which were 2 % and 5 % higher than the control sample, respectively. The pore structure results indicated that a composition of 5 % 45-80 μm SS particles was advantageous for refining the pore structures of cement paste, further contributing to the 28-day compressive strength development of concrete.
The Relationships among Childhood Maltreatment, Emotion Regulation, and Sexual Risk Taking in Men from Urban STD Clinics

This study sought to examine the relationships among emotion regulation difficulties, childhood maltreatment, and risky sexual behavior in a sample of 320 heterosexual men recruited from urban sexually transmitted disease clinics. Overall childhood maltreatment and several specific types of child abuse were significantly associated with emotion dysregulation, number of sexual partners, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis. There was evidence of an additive effect of multiple forms of maltreatment on difficulties with emotion regulation and sexual risk taking. Impulse control difficulties and access to emotion regulation strategies, two components of emotion dysregulation, were related to measures of risky sexual behavior. Furthermore, limited access to emotion regulation strategies mediated the relationship between frequency of childhood sexual abuse and a greater number of lifetime sexual partners. This study has important implications for developing effective interventions to reduce the spread of STIs and HIV by expanding affect regulation and distress tolerance strategies among men who have experienced childhood maltreatment.
Length change characteristics of autoclaved aerated concrete and other porous media based on pore structure

Autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) is an important building material and is a typical porous material. In this study, the moisture sorption and length change isotherms of AAC, Vycor glass, and a diatomaceous shale material were measured. Local minimum values of length change were observed at relative humidities (RH) from 60 to 90% during the desorption process in all cases. Significant hysteresis between desorption and adsorption occurred in this RH range. However, the length of each material changed with small moisture loss or gain and no hysteresis was observed at RH from 10 to 50%. The anomalous length change behavior above 60% RH was explained by capillary tension in inkbottle‐shaped pores, whereas the surface energy model was applied to the length change at low RH. The length change characteristics of the materials with different pore structures in our study can be explained by the pore size distribution.
Ascorbic acid prevents protein oxidation in livers of senescence marker protein‐30/gluconolactonase knockout mice

Senescence marker protein‐30 (SMP30)/gluconolactonase (GNL) knockout (KO) mice are incapable of synthesizing L‐ascorbic acid (AA) in vivo. As AA is known to be a water‐soluble anti‐oxidant, we assessed protein oxidation levels in livers from SMP30/GNL KO mice maintained in an AA‐insufficient condition.
Resting-state Functional Connectivity is an Age-dependent Predictor of Motor Learning Abilities

This magnetoencephalography study investigates how ageing modulates the relationship between pre-learning resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) and subsequent learning. Neuromagnetic resting-state activity was recorded 5 min before motor sequence learning in 14 young (19-30 years) and 14 old (66-70 years) participants. We used a seed-based beta-band power envelope correlation approach to estimate rsFC maps, with the seed located in the right primary sensorimotor cortex. In each age group, the relation between individual rsFC and learning performance was investigated using Pearson's correlation analyses. Our results show that rsFC is predictive of subsequent motor sequence learning but involves different cross-network interactions in the two age groups. In young adults, decreased coupling between the sensorimotor network and the cortico-striato-cerebellar network is associated with better motor learning, whereas a similar relation is found in old adults between the sensorimotor, the dorsal-attentional and the DMNs. Additionally, age-related correlational differences were found in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, known to subtend attentional and controlled processes. These findings suggest that motor skill learning depends-in an age-dependent manner-on subtle interactions between resting-state networks subtending motor activity on the one hand, and controlled and attentional processes on the other hand.
Technology and the Wage Structure

This article reports direct evidence on how technological change is related to changes in wage gaps by schooling, experience, and gender. Wage gaps by schooling increased the most in industries with rising R&D intensity and accelerating growth in the capital‐labor ratio. Estimates of their relationship to high‐tech capital are inconclusive. Contrary to popular notions that technological change harms older workers, wage growth of experienced workers is much greater in R&D‐intensive industries than in industries with little R&D activity. The gender gap narrowed more in industries that most intensively used high‐tech capital in 1979.
Auditory hallucinations and brain structure in schizophrenia: voxel-based morphometric study

Summary We applied voxel-based morphometry to high-resolution magnetic resonance images of 99 participants with schizophrenia. Voxel-wise correlations with a score of auditory hallucination severity identified areas in the left and right superior temporal cortex (including Heschl's gyrus), left supramarginal/angular gyrus, left postcentral gyrus and left posterior cingulate cortex. This study extends previous region-of-interest studies demonstrating main effects of auditory hallucinations related to modality-specific superior temporal areas including primary and secondary auditory cortices.
Ulcers and Gastritis

Once again this year, developments in the field of ulcers and gastritis have been entirely dominated by findings relating to Helicobacter pylori. However, interest in H. pylori can be expected to decline, since the prevalence of the infection is rapidly decreasing in the developing world - to the point that many gastroduodenal ulcers are now unrelated to H. pylori A further reason for declining interest is disappointment regarding the role of H. pylori in dyspepsia. The expected reduction in the endoscopic workload produced by screening for H. pylori or cagA positivity has so far not occurred. The exact role of the damage caused by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in H. pylori-infected stomachs remains controversial. Equally controversial is the magnitude of the increased reflux symptomatology and reflux disease observed after H. pylori infection has been cured in patients with ulcer disease. Eradication therapy is largely dominated by proton-pump inhibitor triple therapies, although the efficacy of these is declining. Bismuth triple therapy and quadruple therapy continue to be valid alternatives.
Passive velocity field control of mechanical manipulators

Two concepts for the task specification and control for mechanical manipulators are advocated: the coding of tasks in terms of velocity fields; and controllers that maintain the passivity relationship between the manipulator and its physical environment. A passive velocity field tracking controller is proposed. The proposed dynamic controller mimics a flywheel: it stores and releases energy to the manipulator, but does not generate any. The controller has the interesting property that it stabilizes any multiple (positive or negative) of the desired velocity field, and exponentially stabilizes the particular multiple which is related to the total kinetic energy of the manipulator+controller.