Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adhesion between individual components and mechanical properties of natural rubber-polypropylene thermoplastic elastomeric blends

Adhesion between individual components and the mechanical properties of natural rubber (NR)-polypropylene (PP) thermoplastic elastomeric blends with reference to adhesion have been studied. The adhesion strength between the component phases was varied by incorporating a third component, namely ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM) or chlorinated polyethylene (CPE), and their effects on the mechanical properties were also studied. It was observed that the level of adhesion between NR and PP is improved by incorporating 20 parts of EPDM or CPE in NR. The mechanical properties of the blends are also improved for a particular composition. The enhancement in the strength properties and modulus of an NR:X:PP (where X is the third component) (70:10:30 or 70:20:30) blend is apparent when a correction due to the hard-phase contribution of the blend is made by taking the ratio of the strength of the composite to the strength of the hard phase or modulus of the blends. When the three-component blends were compared .
A Model for the Consolidation of Aligned Thermoplastic Powder Impregnated Composites

This paper describes the role of surface energy effects, externally applied pressure, resin flow and fiber bed elasticity on the consolidation of thermoplastic-matrix composites manufactured by the powder impregnation route. Surface energy effects in the spreading of polymer droplets on fiber surfaces are discussed; then a model for the consolidation process is developed, relating the variables mentioned above. Consolidation experiments on powder-impregnated composites of the FIT type (Fibres Impregnees de Thermoplastique) were carried out using a mold attached to a servo-hydraulic testing machine. The model accurately predicts variations in void content during consolidation of carbon fiber/PEEK (CF/PEEK) and carbon fiber/PEI (CF/PEI) laminates. It was found that, at the pressures needed to achieve rapid consolidation, surface energy has a negligible influence on impregnation rate, but its effects on the void topology can be considerable. It was also shown that, when laminates of low void content are required, a minimum pressure is needed to overcome the effect of fiber bed elasticity.
Electronic and phonon properties of 2D layered materials.

The focus of this thesis is the study of the electronic and vibrational properties of single layer graphene, silicene and germanene, and bilayer graphene and silicene. Specifically the electronic band structure and Fermi velocity of the carriers as well as the phonon dispersion are calculated; Raman active modes are identified as well. Material stability and electron-phonon effects are also investigated. It is found that in both silicene and germanene linear band dispersion behaviour is found in a planar and a low buckling configuration where the Fermi velocity is 5  105 m/s; about 35% lower than in graphene. From the phonon dispersion curves, the electron-phonon coupling matrix elements are shown to be about a factor of 25 lower when compared with graphene. The applicability of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation to carrier relaxation in silicene and germanene is found to be invalid, as it is in graphene. The phonon dispersion curves show that free-standing bilayer graphene with AB stacking is stable whereas AA stacking is marginally unstable and an optical identification method to distinguish between the two different stacking configurations is proposed. Results for bilayer silicene show there are eight geometries with an energy minimum; it is found that a low buckling AA and a high buckling AA’ stacking configuration have the lowest energies for their groups. Metallic properties are found for all configurations although unusual band structure is found in low buckling forms including linear dispersion behaviour in AA’ form (vf ≈ 5.3  105 m/s). The phonon dispersion curves show that only AB stacked low buckling bilayer silicene was completely stable although it had a higher energy state than AA stacking. The high buckling configuration also shows significant changes to the properties of in-plane vibrational modes suggesting that they can be controlled or engineered by the introduction of additional layers.
Inhibitors : effects on cell toxicity ; osteoblast-induced mineralization and osteoclast-mediated bone resorption.

AimThe cysteine protease cathepsin K (CatK), abundantly expressed in osteoclasts, is responsible for the degradation of bone matrix proteins, including collagen type 1. Thus, CatK is an attractive target for new anti-resorptive osteoporosis therapies, but the wider effects of CatK inhibitors on bone cells also need to be evaluated to assess their effects on bone. Therefore, we selected, among a series of synthetized isothiosemicarbazides, two molecules which are highly selective CatK inhibitors (CKIs) to test their effects on osteoblasts and osteoclasts.Research Design and MethodsCell viability upon treatment of CKIs were was assayed on human osteoblast-like Saos-2, mouse monocyte cell line RAW 264.7 and mature mouse osteoclasts differentiated from bone marrow. Osteoblast-induced mineralization in Saos-2 cells and in mouse primary osteoblasts from calvaria, with or without CKIs,; were was monitored by Alizarin Red staining and alkaline phosphatase activity, while osteoclast-induced bone resorption was performed on bovine slices.ResultsTreatments with two CKIs, CKI-8 and CKI-13 in human osteoblast-like Saos-2, murine RAW 264.7 macrophages stimulated with RANKL and mouse osteoclasts differentiated from bone marrow stimulated with RANKL and MCSF were found not to be toxic at doses of up to 100 nM. As probed by Alizarin Red staining, CKI-8 did not inhibit osteoblast-induced mineralization in mouse primary osteoblasts as well as in osteoblast-like Saos-2 cells. However, CKI-13 led to a reduction in mineralization of around 40% at 10–100 nM concentrations in osteoblast-like Saos-2 cells while it did not in primary cells. After a 48-hour incubation, both CKI-8 and CKI-13 decreased bone resorption on bovine bone slices. CKI-13 was more efficient than the commercial inhibitor E-64 in inhibiting bone resorption induced by osteoclasts on bovine bone slices. Both CKI-8 and CKI-13 created smaller bone resorption pits on bovine bone slices, suggesting that the mobility of osteoclasts was slowed down by the addition of CKI-8 and CKI-13.ConclusionCKI-8 and CKI-13 screened here show promise as antiresorptive osteoporosis therapeutics but some off target effects on osteoblasts were found with CKI-13.
Gleeble Testing of Tungsten Samples

Abstract : The development of a bulk nano-grained tungsten material has been the subject of ongoing research at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. While it has been shown that a powder metallurgy approach can lead to bulk nano-grained tungsten material (1, 2), it has been a persistent challenge to achieve full density. Commercially available tungsten must undergo complex multi-step processes (both hot and cold working) to obtain a fully dense part (3). Similar procedures may need to be developed to produce fully dense nano-crystalline tungsten. One problem with post-processing procedures is that bulk nano-grained materials are often less ductile than their large grained counterparts (4). With conventional commercial tungsten, the brittle nature of the material is overcome by incorporating multi-step hot working procedures. However, for nano-tungsten, recrystallization and grain growth become an issue during processing at elevated temperatures. Commercially, rhenium is often added to tungsten to improve ductility and high temperature stability (5). By adding rhenium to nano-tungsten, enough ductility might be developed to allow for hot working at temperatures low enough to prevent grain growth. Prior to swaging, it needs to be determined whether or not the rhenium addition does impart ductility to nano-tungsten and, if so, at what temperatures and conditions. In order to test the mechanical properties of nano-tungsten with rhenium at high temperatures, the Gleeble unit (a digital version of the 1500 model produced by Dynamic Systems Incorporated, Poestenkill, New York) at ARL was used. The Gleeble is a process simulation machine designed to mimic the thermal and mechanical conditions that arise during processing (6, 7).
Optimal construction of edge-disjoint paths in random graphs

Given a graph G=(V,E) with n vertices, m edges, and a family of $\kappa$ pairs of vertices in $V$, we are interested in finding for each pair (ai, bi) a path connecting ai to bi such that the set of $\kappa$ paths so found is edge disjoint. (For arbitrary graphs the problem is ${\cal NP}$-complete, although it is in ${\cal P}$ if $\kappa$ is fixed.) We present a polynomial time randomized algorithm for finding the optimal number of edge disjoint paths (up to constant factors) in the random graph Gn,m for all edge densities above the connectivity threshold. (The graph is chosen first; then an adversary chooses the pairs of endpoints.) Our results give the first tight bounds for the edge-disjoint paths problem for any nontrivial class of graphs.
Web document clustering based on Global-Best Harmony Search, K-means, Frequent Term Sets and Bayesian Information Criterion

This paper introduces a new description-centric algorithm for web document clustering based on the hybridization of the Global-Best Harmony Search with the K-means algorithm, Frequent Term Sets and Bayesian Information Criterion. The new algorithm defines the number of clusters automatically. The Global-Best Harmony Search provides a global strategy for a search in the solution space, based on the Harmony Search and the concept of swarm intelligence. The K-means algorithm is used to find the optimum value in a local search space. Bayesian Information Criterion is used as a fitness function, while FP-Growth is used to reduce the high dimensionality in the vocabulary. This resulting algorithm, called IGBHSK, was tested with data sets based on Reuters-21578 and DMOZ, obtaining promising results (better precision results than a Singular Value Decomposition algorithm). Also, it was also then evaluated by a group of users.
Bulk absorption measurements of highly transparent DUV/VUV optical materials

The laser induced deflection technique (LID) is introduced for measuring small absorption coefficients of highly transparent DUV/VUV optical materials with high sensitivity and accuracy. The measuring principle, the calibration and the developed experimental realization are explained. At 193 nm in situ absorption and fluorescence measurements of fused silica give evidence that a commonly observed absorption decrease at the onset of laser irradiation is a bulk effect and due to a diminution of oxygen deficient centers ODC II. This decline is caused by a single photon absorption process and terminates after a dose of 4-5 kJ/cm2. Fluence dependent bulk absorption measurements of fused silica are presented which indicate the presence of a nonlinear dependence between the absorption coefficient α and the fluence H. For calcium fluoride a very good agreement between direct absorption and conventional transmission measurements is obtained. At 157 nm, a modified compact experimental setup is introduced which exhibits a significantly higher sensitivity than that applied for 193 nm experiments. First measurements of high quality calcium fluoride show that the obtained absorption is independent on the laser repetition rate. The investigation of equivalent CaF2 samples of different thickness (10 mm and 20 mm) indicates that the measured absorption coefficient is virtually free of contributions from the irradiated surfaces. Finally, a very good agreement is obtained by comparing LID data with transmission measurements of 100 mm long samples.
Robust tracking and monocular 3D reconstruction of line-based features in urban environments

Driving assistance and safety systems are based on data processing of different sensor information. The environment of a vehicle is detected by these sensing elements for accident avoidance or reduction of the accident severity. Due to package size and cost reasons, only selective sensors are used for standard-production of a vehicle. These integrated sensors have to fulfill several tasks at once and to serve different applications. Especially the processed data of a grayscale camera is used for parking assistant or lane detection system. But known from computer vision, a three-dimensional reconstruction of feature elements is possible by analyzing image sequences. This research considers corner detection to create point clouds in space. But the dominant elements of an urban environment, more precisely buildings, are characterized by edges. With this paper we focus on the robust tracking and three-dimensional reconstruction of line-based features. In this context we present our algorithm, defining and analyzing edge tolerances, which is called Tube Principle. The accuracy of this approach is determined by comparing the three-dimensional lines with landmarks of high-precise maps.
The Association Risk of Male Subfertility and Testicular Cancer: A Systematic Review

Background An association between male subfertility and an increased risk of testicular cancer has been proposed, but conflicting results of research on this topic have rendered this theory equivocal. To more precisely assess the association between subfertility and the risk of testicular cancer, we performed a systematic review of international epidemiologic evidence. Principal Findings We searched the Medline database for records from January 1966 to March 2008 complemented with manual searches of the literature and then identified studies that met our inclusion criteria. Study design, sample size, exposure to subfertility and risk estimates of testicular cancer incidence were abstracted. Summary relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using the DerSimonian and Laird model. All statistical tests were two-sided. We identified seven case-control studies and two cohort studies published between 1987 and 2005. Analysis of the seven case-control studies that included 4,954 participants revealed an overall statistically significant association between subfertility and increased risk of testicular cancer (summary RR = 1.68, 95% CI: 1.22 to 2.31), without heterogeneity between studies (Q = 8.46, P heterogeneity = 0.21, I 2 statistics = 0.29). The association between subfertility and testicular cancer was somewhat stronger in the United States (summary RR = 1.75, 95% CI: 1.01 to 3.02) than it was in Europe (summary RR = 1.53, 95% CI: 1.22 to 1.92). The source of the control subjects had a statistically significant effect on the magnitude of the association (population-based summary—RR = 2.15, 95% CI: 1.11 to 4.17; hospital-based summary—RR = 1.56, 95% CI: 0.93 to 2.61). After excluding possible cryptorchidism, an important confounding factor, we also found a positive association between subfertility and increased risk of testicular cancer (summary RR = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.28 to 1.98). These results were consistent between studies conducted in the United States and in Europe (Q = 0.20, P heterogeneity = 0.66). Of the two cohort studies that reported standardized incidence ratios, both reported a statistically significant positive association between subfertility and increased risk of testicular cancer. Conclusions Our findings support a relationship between subfertility and increased risk of testicular cancer and apply to the management of men with subfertility, and prevention and diagnosis of testicular cancer.
Characterization of a waveguide written by a UV laser into a planar polymer chip by digital holographic interferometry

The optical- functional properties of an integrated-optical strip-waveguide in a planar polymer chip are presented in this article. The waveguide was directly written into the surface of a planar polymer chip by UV-laser irradiation. Digital holographic interferometric phase shifting method is used to calculate the refractive index profile of the waveguide. This profile contains one or two zones according to the parameters of UV-laser. The mode field distribution and the effective mode indices for each zone are obtained. The study shows that the optical-functional properties strongly depend on the UV-irradiation parameters. Several mostly independently occurring photochemical processes competing with one another are proposed to explain the formation and shape of the refractive index distribution.
Synthesis of wind time series for network adequacy assessment

When representing the stochastic characteristics of wind generators within power system simulations, the spatial and temporal correlations of the wind resource must be correctly modelled to ensure that reserve and network capacity requirements are not underestimated. A methodology for capturing these correlations within a vector auto-regressive (VAR) model is presented, and applied to a large-scale reanalysis dataset of historical wind speed data for the British Isles. This is combined with a wind speed-to-power conversion model trained against historically metered data from wind farms on the Great Britain (GB) electricity system in order to derive a lightweight model for simulating injections of wind power across a transmission network. The model is demonstrated to adequately represent ramp rates, both at a site and network level, as well as the individual correlations between sites, while being suitable for network adequacy studies which may require the simulation of many years of operation.
Graph-Based Chinese Text Categorization

Most text categorization methods are based on the vector-space model which ignores the structural information, such as the order and co- occurrence of words within the text. In this paper we describe a novel approach of text classification using graph matching. To begin with, we use weight method to select the relevant features to construct the graph. Then we present an improved graph--based text representation model and describe a learning algorithm for building category graphs from the training set. Finally we use the graph matching algorithm we proposed to predict the category of the texts in the testing set. The result shows that the graph matching approach can outperform traditional vector-based NB methods in terms of both accuracy and spend time.
Comparison of Two Methods for Assaying Reducing Sugars in the Determination of Carbohydrase Activities

The Nelson-Somogyi (NS) and 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) assays for reducing sugars are widely used in measurements of carbohydrase activities against different polysaccharides. Using twelve commercial enzyme preparations, the comparison of the NS and DNS assays in determination of cellulase, β-glucanase, xylanase, and β-mannanase activities was carried out. When cellulase activities against CMC were measured, the DNS assay gave activity values, which were typically 40–50% higher than those obtained with the NS assay. In the analysis of the xylanase, β-mannanase, and β-glucanase activities, the overestimations by the DNS assay were much more pronounced (the observed differences in the activities were 3- to 13-fold). Reasons for preferential use of the NS assay for measuring activities of carbohydrases other than cellulases are discussed.
Photomask etch: addressing the resist challenges for advanced phase-shift and binary photomasks

As lithography requirements mandate ever-thinner resist thickness, the need for in-situ monitoring has become more urgent. In this paper we present an in-situ optical methodology-based system to determine residual photoresist thickness during advanced photomask etch with < 1000 Å photoresist. Several types of phase-shift masks and photoresists were examined. A series of masks were etched to demonstrate the performance of the system. Results show an average accuracy of better than 2%, with a maximum absolute range of all tests within 8%.
HoloLeap: towards efficient 3D object manipulation on light field displays

We present HoloLeap, which uses a Leap Motion controller for 3D model manipulation on a light field display (LFD). Like autostereo displays, LFDs support glasses-free 3D viewing. Unlike autostereo displays, LFDs automatically accommodate multiple viewpoints without the need of additional tracking equipment. We describe a gesture-based object manipulation that enables manipulation of 3D objects with 7DOFs by leveraging natural and familiar gestures. We provide an overview of research questions aimed at optimizing gestural input on light field displays.
Hardware-Software Codesign for High-Speed Signature-based Virus Scanning

High-speed network content security applications often offload signature matching to hardware. In such systems, the throughput of the overall system, rather than the hardware engine alone, is significant. The authors offload virus scanning in the ClamAV antivirus package to the BFAST* hardware engine. They find that the data-passing processes significantly degrade system throughput.
Multispectral demosaicking using guided filter

Multispectral imaging is highly demanded for precise color reproduction and for various computer vision applications. Multispectral imaging with a multispectral color filter array (MCFA), which can be considered as a multispectral extension of commonly used consumer RGB cameras, could be a simple, low-cost, and practical system. A challenge of the multispectral imaging with the MCFA is multispectral demosaicking because each spectral component of the MCFA is severely undersampled. In this paper, we propose a novel multispectral demosaicking algorithm using a guided filter. The guided filter is recently proposed as an excellent structurepreserving filter. The guided filter requires so-called a guide image. A main issue of the guided filter is how to obtain an effective guide image. In our proposed algorithm, we generate the guide image from the most densely sampled spectral component in the MCFA. Then, ohter spectral components are interpolated by the guided filter. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm outperforms other existing demosaicking algorithms both visually and quantitatively.
Species-abundance distribution patterns of soil fungi: contribution to the ecological understanding of their response to experimental fire in Mediterranean maquis (southern Italy)

Experimental fires, of both low and high intensity, were lit during summer 2000 and the following 2 y in the Castel Volturno Nature Reserve, southern Italy. Soil samples were collected Jul 2000–Jul 2002 to analyze the soil fungal community dynamics. Species abundance distribution patterns (geometric, logarithmic, log normal, broken-stick) were compared. We plotted datasets with information both on species richness and abundance for total, xerotolerant and heat-stimulated soil microfungi. The xerotolerant fungi conformed to a broken-stick model for both the low- and high intensity fires at 7 and 84 d after the fire; their distribution subsequently followed logarithmic models in the 2 y following the fire. The distribution of the heat-stimulated fungi changed from broken-stick to logarithmic models and eventually to a log-normal model during the post-fire recovery. Xerotolerant and, to a far greater extent, heat-stimulated soil fungi acquire an important functional role following soil water stress and/or fire disturbance; these disturbances let them occupy unsaturated habitats and become increasingly abundant over time.