Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rapid extraction of dissolved inorganic carbon from seawater and groundwater samples for radiocarbon dating

We designed and developed a system to efficiently extract dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) from seawater and groundwater samples for radiocarbon dating. The Rapid Extraction of Dissolved Inorganic Carbon System (REDICS) utilizes a gas‐permeable polymer membrane contactor to extract the DIC from an acidified water sample in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2), introduce it to a helium gas stream, cryogenically isolate it, and store it for stable and radiocarbon isotope analysis. The REDICS system offers multiple advantages to the DIC extraction method which has been used for the last several decades at the National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility (NOSAMS) at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, including faster DIC extraction, streamlined analysis, and minimized set‐up and prep time. The system was tested using sodium carbonate and seawater standards, duplicates of which were also processed on the water stripping line (WSL) at NOSAMS. The results demonstrate that the system successfully extracts, quantifies, and stores more than 99% of the DIC in less than 20 min. Stable and radiocarbon isotope analysis demonstrated system precision of 0.04‰ and 7.8‰, respectively. A Sargasso Sea depth profile was used to further validate the system. The results show high precision for both stable and radiocarbon analysis with pooled standard deviations of 0.02‰ and 5.6‰, respectively. A comparison between the REDICS and WSL analyses indicates a good accuracy for both stable and radio‐isotope analysis.
“Right” or “wrong”? insights into the ecology of sidedness in european flounder, Platichthys flesus

Sidedness polymorphism in flatfish has been linked to ecological selection between morphs. However, the alternate hypothesis that morphological differences between right‐ and left‐sided forms may be due to errors during development, as a consequence of disturbed homeostasis, which still remains largely unexplored. Here, we examined the case of Platichthys flesus (flounder), a polymorphic flatfish exhibiting large and clinal variation in the frequency of the left‐sided morph, which is the reversed condition in this generally right‐sided species. An integrated approach consisting of the analyses of shape variation, stomach contents, and skeletal anomalies was used. Morphological differences were observed between morphs, which are in agreement with previous findings in a congeneric species (Platichthys stellatus). In parallel, significant differences in feeding choices were detected, suggesting a coherent association between subtle morphological differences between morphs and their use of trophic resources. Skeletal anomalies and meristic counts did not corroborate the hypothesis that morphometric divergence in reversed individuals may be caused or reinforced by developmental instability. J. Morphol. 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Modelling of Heat Transfer and Phase Transformations in the Rapid Manufacturing of Titanium Components

Over the last thirty years a new generation of manufacturing processes have been developed whereby fabrication takes place by the sequential addition of material at specific locations on a layer-by-layer basis to produce near-net-shape three-dimensional parts. These processes are generically known as solid freeform fabrication or rapid manufacturing, and their most prominent features are fast delivery times, material wastage reduction and the ability to produce parts directly from a CAD file in a single fabrication step without the need for hard tooling. These characteristics lead to lower costs and faster production cycles than those of hard-tooling based methods, and have made solid freeform fabrication an attractive choice for the production of customised one-of-a-kind parts, prototyping and short-run production. For the manufacture of metallic components these techniques involve the use of a localised energy source, typically a laser beam, to consolidate layers of metallic materials supplied in the form a pre-placed powder bed, blown powder stream or wire feeding. By scanning the interaction zone of the energy source and the material over a substrate and according to a previously defined trajectory, a track of resolidifiedmaterial is produced and the overlapping of tracks enables the manufacture of near-net-shape components, as shown schematically in Figure 1. One important feature of rapid manufacturing techniques is that, as a result of layer overlap during part buildup, the deposited material undergoes consecutive thermal cycles with a duration and amplitude which depend on the processing parameters and on the shape and dimensions of the part being manufactured. These thermal cycles induce phase transformations in the material leading to a progressive modification of its microstructure and properties. Since the thermal history varies from point to point in the part, the material will in general present complex distributions of microstructure and properties. To optimise the manufacturing process to obtain parts fulfilling specific requirements, the influence of the processing conditions and build-up strategy on the final microstructure and properties of the material must be assessed. The complexity of the thermal cycles taking place during the manufacture of components and the impossibility of directly monitoring the thermal and microstructural evolution of the material during the fabrication process make empirical or experimental build-up strategy optimisation impractical. However, the optimisation of the process can be carried out efficiently using a computational approach based on a model 15
Self-dual codes using the building-up construction

The building-up construction for self-dual codes was developed by the authors over finite fields GF(q) when q is a power of 2 or q ≡ 1 (mod 4). In this paper, we complete the building-up construction for self-dual codes over GF(q) with q ≡ 3 (mod 4). For example, we construct new 945 extremal self-dual ternary [32, 16, 9] codes, each of which has a trivial automorphism group.
A novel multitarget tracking algorithm for Myosin VI protein molecules on actin filaments in TIRFM sequences

We propose a novel multitarget tracking framework for Myosin VI protein molecules in total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy sequences which integrates an extended Hungarian algorithm with an interacting multiple model filter. The extended Hungarian algorithm, which is a linear assignment problem based method, helps to solve measurement assignment and spot association problems commonly encountered when dealing with multiple targets, although a two‐motion model interacting multiple model filter increases the tracking accuracy by modelling the nonlinear dynamics of Myosin VI protein molecules on actin filaments. The evaluation of our tracking framework is conducted on both real and synthetic total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy sequences. The results show that the framework achieves higher tracking accuracies compared to the state‐of‐the‐art tracking methods, especially for sequences with high spot density.
Multiple roles of motor imagery during action observation

Over the last 20 years, the topics of action observation (AO) and motor imagery (MI) have been largely studied in isolation from each other, despite the early integrative account by Jeannerod (1994, 2001). Recent neuroimaging studies demonstrate enhanced cortical activity when AO and MI are performed concurrently (“AO+MI”), compared to either AO or MI performed in isolation. These results indicate the potentially beneficial effects of AO+MI, and they also demonstrate that the underlying neurocognitive processes are partly shared. We separately review the evidence for MI and AO as forms of motor simulation, and present two quantitative literature analyses that indeed indicate rather little overlap between the two bodies of research. We then propose a spectrum of concurrent AO+MI states, from congruent AO+MI where the contents of AO and MI widely overlap, over coordinative AO+MI, where observed and imagined action are different but can be coordinated with each other, to cases of conflicting AO+MI. We believe that an integrative account of AO and MI is theoretically attractive, that it should generate novel experimental approaches, and that it can also stimulate a wide range of applications in sport, occupational therapy, and neurorehabilitation.
The Effects of Perceived and Objective Market Cues on Consumers' Product Evaluations

This paper investigates the interactive effects of objective quality information on price and brand name information on buyer’s product evaluation. To answer a call made more than 20 years ago, the study brings objective quality rating information such as those reported in Consumer Reports into a proven market cue - product evaluation model. The research method uses a 2x2x2 factorial design to systematically examine interaction effects of objective information with price and brand name in a market cue-product evaluation model. The conclusions find that the brand effects are not influenced by the objective quality information. However, there are strong interaction effects between price and objective quality information.
Multi-valued Simulation and Abstraction Using Lattice Operations

Abstractions can cause spurious results, which need to be verified in the concrete system to gain conclusive results. Verification based on a multi-valued logic can distinguish between conclusive and inconclusive results, provides increased precision, and allows for encoding additional information into the model. To ensure a correct abstraction, one can use a mixed simulation [Meller et al. 2009]. We extend mixed simulation to include inconsistent values, thereby resolving an asymmetry and allowing for abstractions with increased precision when inconsistent values are available. In addition, we present a set of abstraction rules, compatible with the extended notion, for constructing abstract models.
Factors influencing pursuit of hearing evaluation: Enhancing the health belief model with perceived burden from hearing loss on communication partners

Abstract Objective: There is limited application of health behavior-based theoretical models in hearing healthcare, yet other fields utilizing these models have shown their value in affecting behavior change. The health belief model (HBM) has demonstrated appropriateness for hearing research. This study assessed factors that influence an individual with suspected hearing loss to pursue clinical evaluation, with a focus on perceived burden of hearing loss on communication partners, using the HBM as a framework. Design: Cross-sectional design collecting demographics along with three validated hearing-loss related questionnaires. Study sample: Patients from Duke University Medical Center Otolaryngology Clinic aged 55–75 years who indicated a communication partner had expressed concern about their hearing. A final sample of 413 completed questionnaire sets was achieved. Results: The HBM model construct ‘cues to action’ was a significant (p <0.001) predictor of pursuing hearing evaluation. Perceived burden of hearing loss on communication partners was a significant (p <0.001) predictor of pursuing hearing evaluation and improves the model fit when added to the HBM: 72.0% correct prediction when burden is added versus 66.6% when not (p <0.0001). Conclusions: Hearing healthcare initiatives that incorporate these factors may improve hearing help-seeking behavior. More research using sound theoretical models in hearing healthcare is warranted.
Techniques in Protein Biosynthesis

The large number and variable quality of recent research papers in the field of protein biosynthesis often has made it difficult for readers to discern clearly the experimental basis (or lack thereof) of the interpretation put on the results that are presented. A new series of volumes has been initiated, therefore, to provide critical discussions of the methods used in this active area of biochemistry. In Chapter 1, the editors have provided a sound and clear introduction to the present status of the problem of protein biosynthesis. Chapter 2 (by A. von der Decken) is a valuable discussion of the methodological problems in the study of protein synthesis in mammalian systems, and Chapter 3 (by J. R. Sargent) summarizes thoroughly the techniques and results in experiments on the biosynthesis of specific proteins (hemoglobin, serum albumin, etc.) in animal tissues. Chapter 4 (by M. S. Bretscher and 0. W. Jones) provides an excellent discussion of the experimental basis of the genetic code. The methodological aspects of work with ribopolynucleotides (prepared with polynucleotide phosphorylase or derived from such products by partial enzymic hydrolysis) are well summarized; the recent chemical and enzymic methods used by Khorana's group for the synthesis of copolymers with defined repeating sequence are not described, however. Chapter 5 (by K. S. Kirby) is an excellent account of the techniques used in the isolation of ribonucleic acids. The volume concludes with a useful appendix (prepared by the editors) containing miscellaneous techniques widely employed in experiments on protein biosynthesis, and with a serviceable index. The proliferation of expensive multi-volume series on biochemical topics has been widely deplored, and some may question the need for this recent addition to the list. If the contents of the first volume are an index of the quality of succeeding ones, however, the series will be an essential component of every biochemical library, and will amply fulfill the hope of the editors to help "those readers who are not able to learn the techniques at first hand and who may welcome some general guidance to the literature. "
Intradialytic Exercise Programs for Hemodialysis Patients

Although it is widely accepted that exercise is beneficial in patients with end-stage renal disease as in the general population, it is not easy to incorporate exercise programs into routine clinical practice. This review aimed to investigate the beneficial effects of exercise during hemodialysis and also to introduce various intradialytic exercise programs and their advantages as a first step in combining exercise programs into clinical practice. Aerobic and resistance exercise are beneficial not only in improving physical functioning, including maximal oxygen uptake and muscle strength, but also in improving anthropometrics, nutritional status, hematological indexes, inflammatory cytokines, depression, and health-related quality of life. However, it is not clear whether the beneficial effects of exercise are limited to only relatively healthy dialysis patients. Therefore, the effects of individualized exercise programs for elderly patients or patients with comorbid conditions need to be studied further.
Conformation of antibiotic protein, neocarzinostatin, studied by plane polarized infrared spectroscopy, circular dichroism and optical rotatory dispersion.

The peptide backbone and aromatic side chain conformations of antitumour antibiotic protein, neocarzinostatin and its derivative tetra-S-carboxymethyl neocarzinostatin, have been studied using the ultraviolet circular dichroism (CD), optical rotatory dispersion (ORD) and plane polarized infrared spectroscopy. The near ultraviolet CD and ORD indicated multiple contributions from side chain chromophores (π π*) suggesting buried state (resulting asymmetric property) of phenylalanyl and tyrosyl and perhaps cystine residues in neocarzinostatin. These results are quite accordant with that of chemical inactivity of the tyrosyl and cystinyl residues in the antibiotic. No clear band was assigned for contribution of tryptophyl residue. The results of the infrared spectroscopy at amide I and II have been found more useful in the present study for the analysis of peptide backbone conformations, which indicated the presence of cross β-conformation, while the far ultraviolet CD and ORD spectra were atypical and unable to be interpreted. The results of the examination of amino acid sequence and composition support the finding of infrared studies. The assumption that neocarzinostatin possesses a rigid overall conformation can be explained by the above results and by our separate findings of its peculiar resistances to disulfide bond reductions in aqueous system and hydrolyses by proteolytic enzymes.
Determination of the dielectric constant of coatings with a capacitance probe

This work shows that in many practical situations it is possible to obtain the dielectric constant of coatings on plain conductive substrates by means of a single electrode-sample capacitance measurement without precise knowledge of its thickness. 3D simulations of spherical electrode-dielectric coating-conductive plain substrate capacitive system are performed in order to determine theoretically the suitable electrode dimension for a coating thickness range of interest.
On visual quality of optimal 3D sampling and reconstruction

This paper presents a user study of the visual quality of an imaging pipeline employing the optimal body-centered cubic (BCC) sampling lattice. We provide perceptual evidence supporting the theoretical expectation that sampling and reconstruction on the BCC lattice offer superior imaging quality over the traditionally popular Cartesian cubic (CC) sampling lattice. We asked 12 participants to choose the better of two images: one image rendered from data sampled on the CC lattice and one image that is rendered from data sampled on the BCC lattice. We used both synthetic and CT volumetric data, and confirm that the theoretical advantages of BCC sampling carry over to the perceived quality of rendered images. Using 25% to 35% fewer samples, BCC sampled data result in images that exhibit comparable visual quality to their CC counterparts.
Virtual woodcuts from images

We present in this paper a technique for synthesizing virtual woodcuts based on real images. Woodcuts are an ancient form of art in which an image is printed from a block of carved wood. Our solution is fully automatic, but it also allows a great deal of user control if desired. Given an input image, our solution will synthesize an artistic woodcut from this image. Previous work on this topic has mainly relied on simulation of the actual physical interaction process between wood, ink, and paper, whereas we present a consistent solution based on four steps: image segmentation, computation of orientation fields, generation of strokes, and final rendering. Although some non-photorealistic rendering work could be possibly extended to approximate woodcut effects, ours is the first consistent approach targeting woodcuts specifically for images. We illustrate the potential of the proposed technique with examples of virtual woodcuts, obtained either automatically or user guided.
Modeling and control of an underwater robot propulsion system using Model Predictive Control

This paper considers the dynamics and control of underwater robot thrust. Robot thrust cascade system consists of surge motion, propeller shaft, propeller axial flow and motor. A state space formulation of marine thruster system has been obtained in this paper. The Model Predictive Control (MPC) has been attempted for the application of speed control of marine robotic vehicle. Simulation results have been presented which confirm satisfactory performance.
Improvement of Pointing Time by Predicting Targets in Pointing With a PC Mouse

A method was proposed for the prediction of a target to which a user is to point with a mouse on the basis of the trajectory of the mouse cursor. An empirical study was carried out in order to evaluate the validity of the proposed prediction algorithm to reduce the pointing time with the prediction accuracy remaining high. The effects of the distance between the edges of two adjacent targets and the position of the indicated target on the prediction accuracy were investigated. Pointing with no prediction mode was also conducted. In the prediction method, the angle between the cursor movement vector and the vector that connected the current cursor position and the center of each target was calculated respectively at various sampling frequencies and intervals, and the minimum cumulative value was determined as the prediction target. The pointing time of the prediction method was shown to be less than that of the control condition for various combinations of the sampling interval and frequency. The trade-off.
Main-Memory Operation Buffering for Efficient R-Tree Update

Emerging communication and sensor technologies enable new applications of database technology that require database systems to efficiently support very high rates of spatial-index updates. Previous works in this area require the availability of large amounts of main memory, do not exploit all the main memory that is indeed available, or do not support some of the standard index operations. Assuming a setting where the index updates need not be written to disk immediately, we propose an R-tree-based indexing technique that does not exhibit any of these drawbacks. This technique exploits the buffering of update operations in main memory as well as the grouping of operations to reduce disk I/O. In particular, operations are performed in bulk so that multiple operations are able to share I/O. The paper presents an analytical cost model that is shown to be accurate by empirical studies. The studies also show that, in terms of update I/O performance, the proposed technique improves on state of the art in settings with frequent updates.
EGRESS: Environment for Generating REalistic Scenarios for Simulations

In MANETs, majority of performance studies are carried out via simulations, where node mobility and radio propagation models play a crucial role. However, popular simulation tools, like NS-2 and GloMoSim, use simplistic random mobility patterns and free space radio propagation models. Such simplification ignores many crucial details in environment where movements are not random and obstacles are common. To have a better understanding of MANET protocols, there is a need for a tool that can generate more realistic mobility scenarios and provide better radio propagation model. This paper presents EGRESS, which is built on top of NS-2 and consists of two major components: SGT and ORPM. SGT is a tool that generates node movements in an urban environment with buildings and pathways. ORPM is an obstructive radio propagation model, which enhances the existing radio models in NS-2 by taking into account obstacles in a 3D environment. We believe EGRESS is the first open source tool that provides such integrated and more realistic features for simulating urban environment. Our simulation results show that using more realistic scenarios can have a significant impact on network topology and performance of routing protocols