Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhancement in solar cell efficiency by luminescent down-shifting layers

In this paper, core-shell semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) CdSeS/ZnS with emission at 490 nm and 450 nm were investigated for their use in luminescent down-shifting (LDS) layers. Luminescent quantum yield (LQY) of the QDs measurements in solution proposed that they were suitable candidates for inclusion in LDS layers. QDs were encapsulated in poly(methyl,methacrylate) (PMMA) polymer matrix and films were fabricated of 134 ± 0.05 microns. Selections of organic dyes from BASF Lumogen F range were also investigated for their use as LDS layers; Violet 570 and Yellow 083. The addition of LDS layers containing Violet 570 dye demonstrated a unity LQY when encapsulated within a PMMA matrix. A PV device of an LDS layer of Lumogen Violet 570 deposited on top of a crystalline silicon cell was fabricated where it was demonstrated to increase the efficiency of the cell by 34.5% relative.
Fuzzy Evaluation of the Properties of Fabrics Blended with PTT/PLA/Rayon Fibers

For fabrics, the diversification and superior of the properties and the styles can be achieved by blending fibers. To keep up with the demand of the market, PTT, PLA and Rayon were selected as the materials and 10 kinds of PTT/PLA/Rayon blended fabrics with different fiber content were designed and woven. And then the wearabilities of the fabrics were tested respectively. At last, fuzzy evaluation wad used to discuss the affection of the blended ratio on the fabric’s wearability. The results show that various kinds of wearabilities of the fabric are the best when the blending ratio is PTT/ PLA/Rayon 40/30/30.
Reductive Stress in Inflammation-Associated Diseases and the Pro-Oxidant Effect of Antioxidant Agents

Reductive stress (RS) is the counterpart oxidative stress (OS), and can occur in response to conditions that shift the redox balance of important biological redox couples, such as the NAD+/NADH, NADP+/NADPH, and GSH/GSSG, to a more reducing state. Overexpression of antioxidant enzymatic systems leads to excess reducing equivalents that can deplete reactive oxidative species, driving the cells to RS. A feedback regulation is established in which chronic RS induces OS, which in turn, stimulates again RS. Excess reducing equivalents may regulate cellular signaling pathways, modify transcriptional activity, induce alterations in the formation of disulfide bonds in proteins, reduce mitochondrial function, decrease cellular metabolism, and thus, contribute to the development of some diseases in which NF-κB, a redox-sensitive transcription factor, participates. Here, we described the diseases in which an inflammatory condition is associated to RS, and where delayed folding, disordered transport, failed oxidation, and aggregation are found. Some of these diseases are aggregation protein cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, muscular dystrophy, pulmonary hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, and metabolic syndrome, among others. Moreover, chronic consumption of antioxidant supplements, such as vitamins and/or flavonoids, may have pro-oxidant effects that may alter the redox cellular equilibrium and contribute to RS, even diminishing life expectancy.
Deleting index entries from compliance storage

In response to regulatory focus on secure retention of electronic records, businesses are using magnetic disks configured as write-once read-many (WORM) compliance storage devices to store business documents such as electronic mail for their mandated retention periods. A document committed to a compliance storage device cannot be altered or deleted even by a superuser until its retention period is over, and hence is secure from attacks originating from company insiders. Secure retention, however, is only a part of a document's lifecycle: it is often crucial to properly delete documents once their retention period ends. It is relatively simple to delete a document, but much harder to remove its index entries from WORM. Yet if these entries are not obliterated, the contents of the deleted document can often be reconstructed. In this paper, we formally define secure deletion of document entries from an inverted index on compliance storage. We show that previously proposed deletion schemes for compliance storage index entries do not meet the objectives of secure deletion. On the other hand, the naive approach to secure deletion results in very poor query performance. To provide secure deletion of index entries without compromising lookup efficiency, we propose a novel indexing technique that employs noise terms, merged posting lists, and deletion epochs. Experiments with real-life data show that lookups in our scheme are 5 times faster than the naive approach.
Extravillous trophoblast cells-derived exosomes promote vascular smooth muscle cell migration

Background: Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) migration is a critical process during human uterine spiral artery (SpA) remodeling and a successful pregnancy. Extravillous trophoblast cells (EVT) interact with VSMC and enhance their migration, however, the mechanisms by which EVT remodel SpA remain to be fully elucidated. We hypothesize that exosomes released from EVT promote VSMC migration. Methods: JEG-3 and HTR-8/SVneo cell lines were used as models for EVT. Cells were cultured at 37°C and humidified under an atmosphere of 5% CO2-balanced N2 to obtain 8% O2. Cell-conditioned media were collected, and exosomes (exo-JEG-3 and exo- HTR-8/SVneo) isolated by differential and buoyant density centrifugation. The effects of exo-EVT on VSMC migration were established using a real-time, live-cell imaging system (Incucyte™). Exosomal proteins where identified by mass spectrometry and submitted to bioinformatic pathway analysis (Ingenuity software). Results: HTR-8/SVneo cells were significantly more (~30%) invasive than JEG-3 cells. HTR-8/SVneo cells released 2.6-fold more exosomes (6.39 × 108 ± 2.5 × 108 particles/106 cells) compared to JEG-3 (2.86 × 108 ± 0.78 × 108 particles/106 cells). VSMC migration was significantly increased in the presence of exo-JEG-3 and exo-HTR-8/SVneo compared to control (−exosomes) (21.83 ± 0.49 h and 15.57 ± 0.32, respectively, vs. control 25.09 ± 0.58 h, p < 0.05). Sonication completely abolished the effect of exosomes on VSMC migration. Finally, mass spectrometry analysis identified unique exosomal proteins for each EVT cell line-derived exosomes. Conclusion: The data obtained in this study are consistent with the hypothesis that the release, content, and bioactivity of exosomes derived from EVT-like cell lines is cell origin-dependent and differentially regulates VSMC migration. Thus, an EVT exosomal signaling pathway may contribute to SpA remodeling by promoting the migration of VSMC out of the vessel walls.
CDC’s Public Health Surveillance of Cancer

Routine data collection efforts are a necessary, often underappreciated, component of nearly all cancer research and prevention efforts. Public health cancer surveillance data are crucial for identifying needs, planning interventions, directing public health resources, and evaluating the overall effectiveness of initiatives aimed at preventing or treating cancer and its negative health consequences. As the nation’s health protection agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides resources for disease surveillance systems to help protect our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats, including cancer. Therefore, public health surveillance is a core function of CDC. In this article we briefly describe CDC’s approach to cancer surveillance in our public health programs and other federal initiatives to monitor cancer-related outcomes. We also describe our premier cancer incidence surveillance system, the National Program of Cancer Registries, and discuss uses and applications of the program’s critical cancer data.
Existence and multiplicity results for wave equations with time-independent nonlinearity

We shall study the existence of time-periodic solutions for a semilinear wave equation with a given time-independent nonlinear perturbation and small forcing. Since the distribution of eigenvalues of the linear part varies with the period, the solvability of the problem depends essentially on the frequency. The main idea of this paper is to consider the situation where the period is not prescribed and hence treated as a parameter. The description of the distribution of eigenvalues as a function of the period enables us to show that under certain conditions the interaction between the nonlinearity and the spectrum of the wave operator induces multiple solutions. Our basic new result states that the autonomous equation admits at least two nontrivial solutions (free vibrations) for a restricted (but infinite) set of periods such that the nonlinearity interacts with one simple eigenvalue. As a corollary we prove that the semilinear wave equation with time-independent nonlinearity and small forcing admits an infinite sequence of pairs of periodic solutions with corresponding period tending to zero. The results are obtained via generalized topological degree theory.
Tissue stiffness imaging method using temporal variation of ultrasound speckle pattern

Applying vibration to a medium makes it vibrate. The resulting change in scatterer distribution inside the medium due to applied vibration changes the speckle pattern of ultrasound images. In this case, scatterers in a hard medium experience small displacements, and those in a soft medium experience large displacements. As a result, the amount of speckle pattern brightness change in ultrasound images is related to the tissue stiffness. Using this dependency, a two-dimensional profile of relative tissue stiffness can be constructed qualitatively at the display pixel resolution by determining at each pixel the standard deviation and/or the difference between minimum and maximum values over a certain number of consecutive B-mode images. Experiments with phantoms show that the softer the tissue, the larger the standard deviation. The proposed imaging modality is a simple yet practical method of resolving hard cysts surrounded by soft background in a phantom using B-mode frame data only.
Electro-Thermal Modelling and Simulation of a Power MOSFET

Electro-thermal simulation of power electronic semiconductors is now required in accurate optimisation of power electronic circuits and systems. This requires accurate, but not too complex, electro-thermal models of power semiconductors to be used in commercially available power electronic circuit simulators. Realization of one such electro-thermal model for power MOSFET in IsSpice is described in the paper. Model consists of electrical and thermal part with interactive exchange of variables. Electro-thermal model was tested on real circuit example.
Specification and verification of event detectors and responses

Events and aspects that respond to them can and should be defined, specified, and verified in a modular way, as an aid in understanding and guaranteeing the correctness of each on its own. However, finding the appropriate interfaces and abstractions and expressing them precisely is not an easy task. Moreover, formally verifying large models is often unfeasible for existing model-checking tools. We present an abstraction refinement scheme to verify aspects and to define and correct both aspect and event specifications. This allows considering smaller models and learning the needed event guarantees at each step. In addition, this technique can be used to find sound abstractions to check event reachability. Moreover, the technique is applied for detecting interference in systems where there are responses to complex events and aspects may be activated within the execution of other aspects.
Growth hormone content of pituitaries from rats with hypothalamic lesions.

Growth hormone (GH) content of pituitaries from rats with extensive ventral hypothalamic damage was determined by bioassay using the tibial epiphysial width stimulating test. Decrease in growth rate (measured by body weight and body length), decrease in pituitary size and decrease in pituitary somatotrophin concentration were produced by the lesion. It was estimated that the amount of GH per pituitary was reduced to approximately 15% of the normal. Secondary lesion-induced deficiences of thyroxine, testosterone or of vasopressin were not the cause of this effect because adequate replacement treatment was given. An earlier study on GH content of pituitaries from adrenalectomized rats was cited which makes it unlikely that lesion-induced ACTIi deficiency was the cause of low GH found in these experiments. The demonstration of low concentrations of GH in the pituitaries of rats with lesions is the first direct evidence that some phase of somatotrophin secretion (decreased synthesis or increased release or bo.
TOM1L Is Involved in a Novel Signaling Pathway Important for the IL-2 Production in Jurkat T Cells Stimulated by CD3/CD28 CoLigation

TOM1L (target of Myb-1 Like) was identified as a binding partner for the full length and catalytically-active Lck in a yeast 2-hybrid screening assay. Here we show that in Jurkat T cells stimulated by CD3/CD28 coligation where the expression of TOM1L is reduced by lenti virus mediated-siRNA results in a dramatically lower IL-2 production. The production of IL-2 in siRNA treated cells stimulated with PMA/ionomycin was not affected indicating an involvement of TOM1L in a pathway proximal of TCR and CD28. The coexpression of Fyn with TOM1L increased the level of the phosphorylated form of Fyn indicating that TOM1L has the ability to activate Fyn. The ability of TOM1L to activate Fyn was further shown in a kinase assay using angiotensin II as a substrate. By confocal microscopy, we show that the expression of TOM1L in non-treated HeLa and SK-N-SH cells colocalizes with the mitochondrial membrane but not with lysosomal compartments or the trans-Golgi network. Furthermore, we show that the over-expression of TOM1L in Jurkat cells causes an increase of the STAT3 expression . Based on our results, we here propose that TOM1L is involved in a novel signaling pathway that is important for the IL-2 production in T cells.
Mass spectrometry of synthetic polymers.

Scope 4349 New Techniques and Principles 4349 Matrix-Free Laser Methods 4349 Fundamentals of MALDI and ESI 4350 Solvent-Based MALDI Methods 4350 Solvent-Free MALDI Methods 4350 Solvent-Based Condensed-Phase Separation Methods 4350 Solvent-Free Gas-Phase Separation Methods 4351 Other Methods 4351 Polymer Synthesis 4351 Copolymers 4351 Dendrimers and Hyperbranched Polymers 4352 Other Polymers 4352 Copolymer Analysis 4353 Fragmentation Techniques 4354 Polymer Degradation 4355 Polymer Surface and Interface 4357 Conclusion 4358 Literature Cited 4359
Evolving mechanisms of morphogenesis: on the interplay between differential adhesion and cell differentiation.

Differential cell adhesion, mediated by e.g. integrin and cadherins/catenines, plays an important role in morphogenesis and it has been shown that there is intimate cross-talk between their expression and modification, and inter-cellular signalling, cell differentiation, cell growth and apoptosis. In this paper, we introduce and use a formal model to explore the morphogenetic potential of the interplay between these processes. We demonstrate the formation of interesting morphologies. Initiated by cell differentiation, differential cell adhesion leads to a long transient of cell migrations, e.g. engulfing and intercalation of cells and cell layers. This transient can be sustained dynamically by further cell differentiation, and by cell growth/division and cell death which are triggered by the (also long range) forces (stretching and squeezing) generated by the cell adhesion. We study the interrelation between modes of cell differentiation and modes of morphogenesis. We use an evolutionary process to zoom in on gene-regulation networks which lead to cell differentiation. Morphogenesis is not selected for but appears as a side-effect. The evolutionary dynamics shows the hallmarks of evolution on a rugged landscape, including long neutral paths. We show that a combinatorially large set of morphologies occurs in the vicinity of a neutral path which sustains cell differentiation. Thus, an almost linear molecular phylogeny gives rise to mosaic evolution on the morphological level.
The structural and elemental composition of inhaled particles in ancient Egyptian mummified lungs

Since the first modern investigations into Egyptian mummies in the 1970s, anthracosis and silicosis have regularly been found in mummified lungs (Tapp, 1975; Walker et al, 1987). Anthracosis, lung irritation caused by carbon particles, is well researched in modern populations but very little is known about the disease in ancient times. Similarly, little is known about the prevalence of silicosis, caused by the inhalation of particles of silicon, in ancient times. It has been assumed that carbon was inhaled through the combustion of fuel for cooking and illumination whilst silicon came from the desert environment.This study aims to test these assumptions by characterising the shape, size and elemental composition of the organic and inorganic particles contained within ancient lung tissue. When these particles are compared against surrogate carbon and silicon particles, it may be possible to identify them and reveal their aetiology.Surrogate carbon particles were produced through controlled combustion of fuels the ancient Egyptians are likely to have used. The modern silica containing sand was collected from various archaeological sites in Egypt. A sonication method was used to extract particles from ancient tissue. After extraction, individual ancient particles were isolated and examined for size and shape analysis using light microscopy. The surrogate particles were examined in the same manner. The particles were then imaged using environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) and elemental profiles determined by energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX). Bulk analysis by mass spectrometry was then employed to qualitatively and quantitatively analyse the elements contained within ancient lung particles and the modern surrogates. Electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA) was used to map the deposition and elemental composition of inorganic compounds in sections of ancient lung. Further information on the bonds and chain length of soots were obtained through FTIR and Raman spectroscopy.Results have shown the presence of anthracosis and birefringent particles in all ancient lung tissues examined by this study. Both organic and inorganic ancient particles have been found to be respirable (ie, less than 10 microns in diameter) and were present in the lung pre-mortem. EDX and ICP-MS results show the inorganic particles to consist of aluminium silicates (sand) and calcium carbonate (limestone). FTIR and Raman spectroscopy were not accurate enough to detect the ancient or surrogate soot bonds and were not suited to this study.
Full-Genomic Analysis of a Human Norovirus Recombinant GII.12/13 Novel Strain Isolated from South Korea

Norovirus (NoV) genogroups I and II are frequently recognized as the main causes of acute gastroenteritis and outbreaks of non-bacterial foodborne diseases. Furthermore, variants and recombinant strains of this virus are continuously emerging worldwide. The aim of this study was to identify NoV strains and to investigate and characterize rare genotypes. Stool samples (n = 500) were collected from patients with symptoms of acute gastroenteritis in Korea between December 2004 and November 2007. For analysis of the samples, rapid genotype screening was performed using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Full sequencing, using a newly designed set of 12 primers, revealed GII-12/13 strain. The partial sequence of GII-12/13 strain was compared with published NoV (GII-1 - 14) sequences targeting RdRp and capsid regions using phylogenetic analysis with the SimPlot program, which could evaluate recombination breakpoints. SimPlot analysis was also performed with the strain GII-12/Gifu-96/JPN (AB045603) for the RdRp region and with GII-13/G5175B-83/AUS(DQ379714) for the capsid region. NoV was detected in 19 of the 500 stool samples (3.8%). Genogroup GII-4 was found most frequently (n = 9, 1.8%), followed by GII-3 (n = 4, 0.8%), GII-6 (n = 3, 0.6%), GI-6 (n = 2, 0.4%), and GII-12/13 (n = 1, 0.2%). Importantly, we identified a novel NoV recombinant strain, C9-439 (KF289337), indicating potential risks, which suggested that, recombination occurred in the region between open reading frames 1 and 2 of the GII-12/13 strain and that breakpoints occurred in the polymerase region.
Hybrid Run-time Power Management Technique for Real-time Embedded System with Voltage Scalable Processor

This paper presents a new run-time power management technique for real-time embedded systems which consist of a voltage scalable processor and power controllable peripheral devices. We have observed that there exist significant trade-offs in terms of energy consumption between the Dynamic Power Management (DPM) scheme and the Dynamic Voltage Scaling (DVS) scheme over a wide range of system operating conditions. The proposed technique fully exploits workload-variation slack time by partitioning the task into several timeslots and shut down the unneeded peripheral device on timeslot-by-timeslot basis. Through extensive simulations, the novelty and the usefulness of the proposed technique are demonstrated.
The consumed endurance workbench: a tool to assess arm fatigue during mid-air interactions

Consumed Endurance (CE) [8] is a metric that captures the degree of arm fatigue during mid-air interactions. Research has shown that CE can assist with the design of new and minimally fatiguing gestural interfaces. We introduce the Consumed Endurance Workbench, an open source application that calculates CE in real time using an off-the-shelf skeleton tracking system. The CE Workbench tracks a person's arm as it is moved in mid-air, determining the forces involved and calculating CE over the length of the interaction. Our demonstration focuses on how to use the CE Workbench to evaluate alternative mid-air gesture designs, how to integrate the CE Workbench with existing applications, and how to prepare the CE data for statistical analysis. We also demonstrate a mid-air text-entry layout, SEATO, which we created taking CE as the main design factor.
Survey on Image Watermarking Schemes using Adaptive Soft Computing Techniques

During last few years, many soft computing techniques have been employed for image watermarking. These are more into delving the issue of optimization of visual quality of signed images and robustness of the embedding algorithm. The used techniques either operate in adaptive or learning mode, especially those using Artificial Neural Networks or in non adaptive analytical mode such as ones based on Fuzzy logic. Several researchers have also worked on this problem using hybrid and evolutionary algorithms. This research survey especially deals with the image watermarking techniques which rely on adaptive soft computing techniques. The results of gradient descent based Back propagation Network (BPN algorithm, Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN algorithm and a newly developed Single Layer Feed forward Neural Network (SLFN algorithm commonly known as Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) used to carry out watermarking in uncompressed grayscale images are compared. These techniques are compared for different images and the comparison is based on the visual quality of signed images, the watermark detector response coefficients such as similarity correlation and normalized correlation parameters and the robustness studies. Time complexity issue is also examined to establish the use of watermarking process on a real time scale. It is concluded that the ELM algorithm gives a reasonable generalized behavior in terms of computation of these parameters as compared to its other counterparts. It’s fast training in milliseconds and subsequent embedding and extraction makes it suitable for developing watermarking application on a real time scale.