Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selecting the Aspect Ratio of a Scatter Plot Based on Its Delaunay Triangulation

Scatter plots are diagrams that visualize two-dimensional data as sets of points in the plane. They allow users to detect correlations and clusters in the data. Whether or not a user can accomplish these tasks highly depends on the aspect ratio selected for the plot, i.e., the ratio between the horizontal and the vertical extent of the diagram. We argue that an aspect ratio is good if the Delaunay triangulation of the scatter plot at this aspect ratio has some nice geometric property, e.g., a large minimum angle or a small total edge length. More precisely, we consider the following optimization problem. Given a set Q of points in the plane, find a scale factor s such that scaling the x-coordinates of the points in Q by s and the y-coordinates by 1=s yields a point set P(s) that optimizes a property of the Delaunay triangulation of P(s), over all choices of s. We present an algorithm that solves this problem efficiently and demonstrate its usefulness on real-world instances. Moreover, we discuss an empirical test in which we asked 64 participants to choose the aspect ratios of 18 scatter plots. We tested six different quality measures that our algorithm can optimize. In conclusion, minimizing the total edge length and minimizing what we call the 'uncompactness' of the triangles of the Delaunay triangulation yielded the aspect ratios that were most similar to those chosen by the participants in the test.
Without Its N-Finger, the Main Protease of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Can Form a Novel Dimer through Its C-Terminal Domain

ABSTRACT The main protease (Mpro) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) plays an essential role in the extensive proteolytic processing of the viral polyproteins (pp1a and pp1ab), and it is an important target for anti-SARS drug development. It was found that SARS-CoV Mpro exists in solution as an equilibrium of both monomeric and dimeric forms, and the dimeric form is the enzymatically active form. However, the mechanism of SARS-CoV Mpro dimerization, especially the roles of its N-terminal seven residues (N-finger) and its unique C-terminal domain in the dimerization, remain unclear. Here we report that the SARS-CoV Mpro C-terminal domain alone (residues 187 to 306; Mpro-C) is produced in Escherichia coli in both monomeric and dimeric forms, and no exchange could be observed between them at room temperature. The Mpro-C dimer has a novel dimerization interface. Meanwhile, the N-finger deletion mutant of SARS-CoV Mpro also exists as both a stable monomer and a stable dimer, and the dimer is formed through the same C-terminal-domain interaction as that in the Mpro-C dimer. However, no C-terminal domain-mediated dimerization form can be detected for wild-type SARS-CoV Mpro. Our study results help to clarify previously published controversial claims about the role of the N-finger in SARS-CoV Mpro dimerization. Apparently, without the N-finger, SARS-CoV Mpro can no longer retain the active dimer structure; instead, it can form a new type of dimer which is inactive. Therefore, the N-finger of SARS-CoV Mpro is not only critical for its dimerization but also essential for the enzyme to form the enzymatically active dimer.
Clinical outcomes and adherence to medications measured by claims data in patients with diabetes.

OBJECTIVE Although poor medication adherence may contribute to inadequate diabetes control, ways to feasibly measure adherence in routine clinical practice have yet to be established. The present study was conducted to determine whether pharmacy claims-based measures of medication adherence are associated with clinical outcomes in patients with diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The study setting was a large, integrated delivery and financial system serving the residents of southeastern Michigan. The study population consisted of 677 randomly selected patients aged > or =18 years with a diagnosis of diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertension and who filled at least one prescription for either an antidiabetic, lipid-lowering, or antihypertensive drug in each of the 3 study years (1999-2001). The main outcome measures were HbA1c, LDL cholesterol levels, and blood pressure. RESULTS Nonadherent patients had both statistically and clinically worse outcomes than adherent patients. Even after adjusting for demographic and clinical characteristics, nonadherence was significantly associated with HbA1c and LDL cholesterol levels. A 10% increase in nonadherence to metformin and statins was associated with an increase of 0.14% in HbA1c and an increase of 4.9 mg/dl in LDL cholesterol levels. Nonadherence to ACE inhibitors was not significantly associated with blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS Claims-based measures of medication adherence are associated with clinical outcomes in patients with diabetes and may therefore prove to be useful in clinical practice. More research is needed on methods to introduce claims-based adherence measurements into routine clinical practice and how to use these measurements to effectively improve adherence and health outcomes in chronic care management.
The C. elegans developmental timing protein LIN-42 regulates diapause in response to environmental cues

Environmental conditions can have a major impact on developmental progression in animals. For example, when C. elegans larvae encounter harsh conditions they can reversibly halt the passage of developmental time by forming a long-lived dauer larva at the end of the second larval stage. Here, we show that the period homolog lin-42, known to control developmental time, also acts as a component of a switch that mediates dauer entry. Loss of lin-42 function renders animals hypersensitive to dauer formation under stressful conditions, whereas misexpression of lin-42 in the pre-dauer stage inhibits dauer formation, indicating that lin-42 acts as a negative regulator of this life history decision. These phenotypes place LIN-42 in opposition to the ligand-free form of the nuclear receptor DAF-12, which indirectly senses environmental conditions and helps to integrate external cues into developmental decisions. Mutations that impair DAF-12 ligand binding are exquisitely sensitive to the absence of lin-42, whereas overexpression of LIN-42 can suppress the dauer constitutive phenotype of a ligand-insensitive daf-12 mutant, suggesting that LIN-42 and DAF-12 are intimate partners in controlling the decision to become a dauer larva. The functional outputs of Period family proteins and nuclear receptors also converge in other organisms, suggesting that the relationship between lin-42 and daf-12 represents an ancient genetic framework for responding to environmental stimuli.
Case-control study to identify risk factors for bovine cysticercosis on farms in Switzerland

SUMMARY Taenia saginata cysticercosis causes financial losses to the beef industry and farmers, and represents a significant source for human infection in many countries. A case-control study was conducted to identify risk factors for bovine cysticercosis on farms in Switzerland. The case group (n=119) consisted of farms with infected cattle identified at slaughter in 2005 and 2006. Infections were confirmed by morphological or molecular diagnosis. The control group (n=66) comprised randomly selected farms with cattle slaughtered in the same period but with no evidence or history of infection. In personal structured interviews with the farmers, information regarding local surroundings and farm management was collected. Logistic regression revealed the following 5 factors as being positively associated with the occurrence of bovine cysticercosis: the presence of a railway line or a car park close to areas grazed by cattle, leisure activities around these areas, use of purchased roughage and organized public activities on farms attracting visitors. This information is considered useful for government authorities to direct control strategies as well as for farmers to take measures tailored to local situations.
Atom-by-Atom Substitution of Transition Metals in GaAs and Visualization of Hole-Mediated Interactions

The discovery of ferromagnetism in Mn doped InAs and GaAs has ignited interest in the development of semiconductor technologies based on the electron spin. A major hurdle remaining for realistic applications of ferromagnetic semiconductors, such as Ga1-xMnxAs, is their below room-temperature ferromagnetic transition temperature. Enhancing ferromagnetism in semiconductors requires understanding the mechanisms for interactions between magnetic dopants and identifying the circumstances that maximize ferromagnetic interactions. In this thesis, we present a novel atom-by-atom substitution technique with the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) to controllably incorporate transition metal dopants into GaAs. We compare the electronic states of isolated single acceptors in an identical configuration— Ga sites in the top layer of a GaAs (110) surface. The acceptor levels and anisotropic shape of the hole states for manganese, iron, cobalt, and zinc are determined with STM topography and spectroscopy. The manganese acceptor has a deeper acceptor level than the nonmagnetic zinc acceptor. The iron and cobalt acceptors have two acceptor levels that are complementary in their spatial distribution. We discuss the influence of the GaAs band structure and the p-d hybridization on the hole states. In addition, we probe the Mn acceptor in n-type and p-type GaAs to understand the role of tip-induced band bending in our experiments. We also present the first controlled atomic scale study of the interactions between isolated Mn impurities mediated by electronic states in GaAs. High-resolution STM measurements provide visualization of the GaAs electronic states that participate in Mn-Mn interactions. We quantify the interaction strengths between Mn pairs as a function of relative position and orientation. Our experimental findings, which can be explained using tightbinding model calculations, reveal a strong dependence of ferromagnetic interaction on crystallographic orientation. This anisotropic interaction can potentially be exploited by growing oriented Ga1-xMnxAs structures to enhance the ferromagnetic transition temperature beyond that achieved in randomly doped samples.
Dynamic structure in software architectures

Much of the recent work on Architecture Description Languages (ADL) has concentrated on specifying organisations of components and connectors which are static. When the ADL specification is used to drive system construction, then the structure of the resulting system in terms of its component instances and their interconnection is fixed. This paper examines ADL features which permit the description of dynamic software architectures in which the organisation of components and connectors may change during system execution.The paper outlines examples of language features which support dynamic structure. These examples are taken from Darwin, a language used to describe distributed system structure. An operational semantics for these features is presented in the &pi;-calculus, together with a discussion of their advantages and limitations. The paper discusses some general approaches to dynamic architecture description suggested by these examples.
Virginia Tech's twin contenders: A comparative study of reactive and deliberative navigation

There are two commonly accepted paradigms for organizing intelligence in robotic vehicles, namely, reactive and deliberative. Although these paradigms are well known to researchers, there are few published examples directly comparing their development and application on similar vehicles operating in similar environments. Virginia Tech's participation, with two nearly identical vehicles in the DARPA Grand Challenge, afforded a practical opportunity for such a case study. The two Virginia Tech vehicles, Cliff and Rocky, proved capable of off‐road navigation, including road following and obstacle avoidance in complex desert terrain. Under the conditions of our testing, the reactive paradigm developed for Cliff produced smoother paths and proved to be more reliable than the deliberative paradigm developed for Rocky. The deliberative method shows great promise for planning feasible paths through complex environments, but it proved unnecessarily complex for the desert road navigation problem posed by the Grand Challenge. This case study, while limited to two specific software implementations, may help to shed additional light on the tradeoffs and performance of competing approaches to machine intelligence. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Simulation of precipitation of secondary carbides in hot work tool steels

Abstract Precipitation of secondary carbides in hot work tool steels during tempering heat treatments has been investigated using simulations based on a thermodynamic description coupled with kinetic parameters through multicomponent nucleation and growth models. The simulations reproduce the measured effects of steel composition on the precipitation of secondary carbides. Both Si and V increase the volume fraction of fine secondary carbides precipitated during tempering provided that the austenitising temperature is adjusted to give the same fraction of retained primary carbides. The most important effect of Si in 5%Cr steels is its influence on the primary carbide stability at austenitisation temperatures, but increasing the V contents has a strong effect on the fraction of secondary carbides, without increasing the size, and can thus improve the yield strength. The most critical input to the calculations is the thermodynamic description of the individual phases.
Long-term V-band monitoring of the bright stars of M33 at the Wise Observatory

We have conducted a long-term V-band photometric monitoring of M33 on 95 nights during four observing seasons (2000–2003). A total number of 6418 light curves of bright objects in the range of 14–21 mag have been obtained. All measurements are publicly available. A total of 127 new variables were detected, of which 28 are periodic. 10 previously known non-periodic variables were identified as periodic, three of which are Cepheids, and another previously known periodic variable was identified as an eclipsing binary. Our derived periods range from 2.11 to almost 300 d. For 50 variables we have combined our observations with those of the DIRECT project, obtaining light curves of up to 500 measurements, with a time-span of ∼7 yr. We have detected a few interesting variables, including a 99.3 d periodic variable with a 0.04 mag amplitude, at the position of supernova remnant (SNR) 19.
Peripheral Deformation and Buckling of Stainless Steel Hemispherical Shells Compressed by a Flat Plate

An experimental investigation was performed on stainless steel hemispherical shells under axial compression. Eight kinds of shells with radius-to-thickness ratios that range from 57.1 to 125 were designed and manufactured for this study. The shells were compressed to more than 50% of their radii by a solid flat plate. To avoid contact between the base plate and the deformed central part of the shells, most of the shells were placed on a plate with a hole in the center. Nonetheless, one type of shell was placed on a solid base plate without a hole to analyze the effect of the base plate. As per an observation of collapse modes and load-deformation shell relations, the deformation process of a hemispherical shell that is compressed by a flat plate can be divided into four stages: local flattening (Stage I), axi-symmetric inward dimpling (Stage II), non-symmetric multiple lobes (Stage III), and peripheral deformation and buckling stage (Stage IV). The present study mainly studies Stage IV, which can be categorized into peripheral compression (Stage A), peripheral buckling (Stage B), buckling expanding (Stage C), and overall collapse (Stage D).
Novel Loaded-Resonant Converter & Application of DC-to-DC Energy Conversions systems

As there are many advantages of resonant power conversion due to which it is being adopted traditionally as pulse-width modulation that includes a low electromagnetic interference with low switching losses with its small volume and light weight of components that enables high switching frequency that produces high efficiency and low reverse recovery losses in diodes owing at a low di/dt at switching instant. This paper presents a novel loaded-resonant converter for direct current (dc)-to-dc energy conversion applications that uses the topology that comprises of a half-bridge Inductor Capacitor Inductor (LCL) resonant inverter and a bridge rectifier which yields the output stage of the proposed loaded-resonant converter is filtered by a low-pass filter that is prototyped with dc-to-dc energy converter circuit that is a novel loaded- resonant converter which is designed for a load is designed then developed and tested to verify its logical predictions. The measured energy conversion efficiency of the proposed novel loaded-resonant topology reaches up to 86.3% and all the test results demonstrate a satisfactory performance of the proposed topology and hence the proposed topology is highly promising for applications of power electronic productions such as switching power supplies or for battery chargers or for uninterruptible power systems or for renewable energy generation systems and for telecom power supplies.
Signal sequences specify the targeting route to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, only a subset of preproteins that are translocated across the ER membrane require the function of the signal recognition particle (SRP), suggesting that an alternative, SRP-independent pathway must exist (Hann, B.C., and P. Walter. 1991. Cell. 67:131-144). We have established that the two targeting pathways function in parallel. Mutant alleles of SEC62 and SEC63 were isolated that specifically impaired the translocation of SRP-independent preproteins in vivo and in vitro, whereas SRP-dependent preproteins were unaffected. Based on this analysis, preproteins fall into three distinct classes: SRP dependent, SRP independent, and those that can use both pathways. Pathway specificity is conferred by the hydrophobic core of signal sequences. Our studies show a previously unrecognized diversity in ER-directed signal sequences, that carry structural information that serves to identify the route taken.
Supersymmetric particle mass measurement with invariant mass correlations

The kinematic end-point technique for measuring the masses of supersymmetric particles in R-Parity conserving models at hadron colliders is re-examined with a focus on exploiting additional constraints arising from correlations in invariant mass observables. The use of such correlations is shown to potentially resolve the ambiguity in the interpretation of quark+lepton end-points and enable discrimination between sequential two-body and three-body lepton-producing decays. The use of these techniques is shown to improve the SUSY particle mass measurement precision for the SPS1a benchmark model by at least 20–30% compared to the conventional end-point technique.
Prevalence and Risk Factors of Hypertension among Bank Employees in Urban Puducherry, India

Background: There is paucity of information on the prevalence of hypertension and its risk factors among bank employees at global level. Objective: To assess the prevalence and risk factors of hypertension among bank employees in Puducherry, India. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 192 (128 male and 64 female) bank employees from 12 nationalized banks in urban Puducherry, India. Blood pressure was measured and classified according to the Joint National Committee (JNC) VII criteria. Data on risk factors of hypertension, including consumption of extra salt while dining, eating high-salt food, junk food, servings of fruits and vegetables, smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, and body mass index, were obtained for each participant using a standard questionnaire. Stress level was assessed by Cohen's Perceived Stress scale. Data was analyzed by Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: The mean±SD age of the participants was 39.5±10.6 years. The prevalence of hypertension and pre-hypertension was 44.3% (95% CI: 37.2%–51.3%) and 41.1% (95% CI: 34.1%–48.1%), respectively. Of 85 participants with hypertension, 47 (55%) was known case and 38 (45%) were newly diagnosed. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that living in the 4th (OR: 3.13) or 6th (OR: 3.11) decade of life, consumption of extra salt (OR: 2.49), and physical activity ≥2 hours per day (OR: 0.21) were associated with hypertension among bank employees. Conclusion: Prevalence of hypertension is high among bank employees. There is a need for strengthening adoption of certain interventional measures in lifestyle such as reducing salt intake and promoting physical activity among this vulnerable group.
Estimating Person—Environment Transactions on Intention to Change Drug-Using Behaviors

The community attachment model of addiction is an ecologically based social process model that suggests social context referents (peers, family, neighbors, etc.) will influence attachment to addiction or recovery communities, via cognitive, affective, and behavioral commitments. This study examined the influence of social context referents on intention to change drug using behavior, and examined moderating effects of three contextual indicators (labor market attachment, educational attainment, and family poverty status) on these relationships. The study sample consisted of 302 adults in inpatient and outpatient substance abuse treatment facilities, who completed a set of instruments that included the Ecological Assessment of Substance Abuse Experiences (EASE), a new instrument designed to measure the influence of social context referents on addiction and recovery attachment processes. Results showed that all three contextual indicators moderated relationships among social context referenced attitudes, drug use concern, and intention to change drug using behaviors. Findings suggest that practitioners should attend to both microlevel orientations to social context and macrolevel contextual dimensions (e.g., labor force attachment), as both may influence behavioral change opportunities.
Numerical Simulations of Phase Change in Microgravity

Direct numerical simulations of liquid-solid and liquid-vapor phase change are conducted under microgravity conditions. The time-dependent governing equations are solved using a two-dimensional finite-difference/front-tracking method. Large interface deformations, topology change, latent heat, surface tension and unequal material properties between the phases are included in the simulations. Results are presented for two specific problems: directional solidification of a dilute binary alloy and the rapid evaporation of a superheated liquid (vapor explosion). For the directional solidification problem, solution of the fully coupled solute and energy equations reveals the evolution of morphologically complex structures such as tip splitting, coarsening and droplet detachment from deep intercellular grooves. A variety of important solute segregation patterns such as necking, coring and banding are also observed. The boiling problem couples the phase change with fluid flow. This requires the solution of the Navier-Stokes and energy equations with interphase mass transfer. The energetic growth of instabilities on planar and circular interfaces during the unstable explosive evaporation of a superheated liquid in microgravity is demonstrated.