Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pressure dependence of thin polycrystalline silicon carbide diaphragm resonators

Square poly cry stalline 3C silicon carbide (poly-SiC) thin diaphragms with large aspect ratios (i.e., side length to thickness: L/t ~ 600) are explored as a structural material for micromechanical resonators. The effects of varying pressure on the characteristics of multiple resonant modes are studied. Load-deflection tests reveal a Young's modulus of EY = 344 ± 13 GPa and a residual (built-in) stress of σ0 = 113 ± 10 MPa. Cyclic loading tests of the diaphragms show no changes in EY and σ0 values after over 30,000 cycles. Resonance measurements of the diaphragms at approximately 5mTorr show peaks with quality (Q) factors of Q's ≈ 14,000 and 45,000 for the first two flexural resonance modes at 85.5kHz and 137.6kHz. With increasing pressure, the measured resonance frequencies shift higher (i.e., stiffening), by approximately 1.7kHz or 1.9% for the 85.5kHz peak, and 1.8kHz or 1.3% for the 137.6kHz peak. Meanwhile, Q's are observed to decrease to ~400 at 20Torr for the 85.5kHz resonance and to ~3600 at 2Torr for the 137.6kHz resonance. Simultaneously as the pressure increases, the peak amplitude of the resonance reduces by 97% for the mode at 85.5kHz, and by 93% for the 137.6kHz resonance. These characteristics may be exploited for resonant pressure sensing using poly-SiC.
UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER BRAND ENGAGEMENT WITH VIRTUAL SOCIAL COMMUNITIES: A COMPREHENSIVE MODEL OF DRIVERS, OUTCOMES AND MODERATORS

Social media has established a new dynamic in marketing, enabling customers to engage with brands in a variety of ways. This article aims to develop a comprehensive model of drivers, outcomes, and moderators of customer brand engagement (CBE) on virtual brand communities in social media. Based on a survey of 799 customers, findings identify involvement, interactivity, and flow experience as key drivers of CBE, and satisfaction, trust, word-of-mouth referrals, and commitment as associated outcomes, with identification and trust in the brand community acting as moderators. This study provides new insights about the CBE process, offering valuable suggestions to brand managers.
Global and local transformation function mixture for image contrast enhancement

In this paper we present an effective method for image contrast enhancement with a mapping function that improves both the brightness and fine details of the input image. With the global transformation function it combines an intensitypair distribution based expansion function from each image block to control the enhancement of image details, which the global transformation function alone may fail to improve. Contribution from the global transformation function preserves the overall image brightness and contrast stretch.
Transformation of Human and Murine Fibroblasts without Viral Oncoproteins

ABSTRACT Murine embryo fibroblasts are readily transformed by the introduction of specific combinations of oncogenes; however, the expression of those same oncogenes in human cells fails to convert such cells to tumorigenicity. Using normal human and murine embryonic fibroblasts, we show that the transformation of human cells requires several additional alterations beyond those required to transform comparable murine cells. The introduction of the c-Myc and H-RAS oncogenes in the setting of loss of p53 function efficiently transforms murine embryo fibroblasts but fails to transform human cells constitutively expressing hTERT, the catalytic subunit of telomerase. In contrast, transformation of multiple strains of human fibroblasts requires the constitutive expression of c-Myc, H-RAS, and hTERT, together with loss of function of the p53, RB, and PTEN tumor suppressor genes. These manipulations permit the development of transformed human fibroblasts with genetic alterations similar to those found associated with human cancers and define specific differences in the susceptibility of human and murine fibroblasts to experimental transformation.
Erythrosine B and quinoline yellow dyes regulate DNA repair gene expression in human HepG2 cells

Erythrosine B (ErB) is a cherry pink food colorant and is widely used in foods, drugs, and cosmetics. Quinoline yellow (QY) is a chinophthalon derivative used in cosmetic compositions for application to the skin, lips, and/or body surface. Previously, ErB and QY synthetic dyes were found to induce DNA damage in HepG2 cells. The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular basis underlying the genotoxicity attributed to ErB and QY using the RT2 Profiler polymerase chain reaction array and by analyzing the expression profile of 84 genes involved in cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and DNA repair in HepG2 cells. ErB (70 mg/L) significantly decreased the expression of two genes (FEN1 and REV1) related to DNA base repair. One gene (LIG1) was downregulated and 20 genes related to ATR/ATM signaling (ATR, RBBP8, RAD1, CHEK1, CHEK2, TOPB1), nucleotide excision repair (ERCC1, XPA), base excision repair (FEN1, MBD4), mismatch repair (MLH1, MSH3, TP73), double strand break repair (BLM), other DNA repair genes (BRIP1, FANCA, GADD45A, REV1), and apoptosis (BAX, PPP1R15A) were significantly increased after treatment with QY (20 mg/L). In conclusion, our data suggest that the genotoxic mechanism of ErB and QY dyes involves the modulation of genes related to the DNA repair system and cell cycle.
2‐(fluorine‐18)fluoro‐2‐deoxy‐D‐glucose positron emission tomography in the detection and staging of malignant lymphoma

The authors undertook a prospective evaluation of the clinical value of 2‐fluoro [18‐]‐2‐deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG‐PET) in the detection and staging of malignant lymphoma compared with computed tomography (CT) and bone marrow biopsy (BMB).
Who is More Honest in Tax Declaration Decisions, the Guilty or the Ashamed?

This work is to find the differences in tax compliance between two categories of people: the guilty and the ashamed. We divided the participants of tax payment experiments into different categories by a questionnaire, analyzing the data of the experiments. Results indicate that the ashamed exhibit a higher level of tax compliance than the guilty do with no public good and unaware of peer behavior. Additionally, we analyzed the reaction to public goods and peer behavior. Thus, the analysis indicates more discoveries: (1) the guilty improve the level of compliance under the mechanism of returning public goods linearly but decline when receiving fixed public goods; (2) returning public goods has no significant effect on the ashamed; (3) the guilty perform herd behavior following peer compliance; (4) peer behavior on tax compliance has little effect on the ashamed.
Coordinated voltage control for active network management of distributed generation

Existing approaches to the design, control and operation of 11 kV distribution networks often restrict optimal utilization. When confronting the increasing demand and growing amount of distributed generation being connected to the networks, it is essential for distribution system operators to employ new and more active network management practices. This paper presents and discusses a range of active voltage management schemes based on coordinated voltage control. These schemes can be used to improve the voltage profile in 11kV distribution networks and increase their ability to accommodate distributed generation. Technical limitations and commercial barriers are discussed. Two case studies based on EDF Energy distribution systems are presented. Both systems experienced voltage issues associated with the presence of distributed generation and innovative active control scheme trials have been installed. The functionality of each scheme is assessed based on a number of factors such as: ability of the scheme to increase network capacity, reliability and accuracy.
Digital immunization registry: evidence for the impact of mHealth on enhancing the immunization system and improving immunization coverage for children under one year old in Vietnam.

BACKGROUND The Vietnam National Expanded Program on Immunization (NEPI) has been successfully implementing a nationwide immunization system since 1985. From the start, the program has increased the immunization coverage rate; however, data on immunization coverage in Vietnam are gathered and aggregated from commune health centers in routine, paper-based reports, which have shortcomings. Also, calculations of coverage are inconsistent at subnational levels, which lead to uncertainty about the size of the target population used as the denominator in coverage calculations. The growth of mobile networks in Vietnam provides an opportunity to apply mHealth to improve the immunization program. In 2012, PATH and the Vietnam NEPI developed and piloted a digital immunization registry, ImmReg, to overcome the challenges of the paper system. A final evaluation was conducted in 2015 to assess the impact of ImmReg, including its use of SMS reminders, on improving the immunization program. METHODS The study population comprised all children born in Ben Tre province in September and October of 2013, 2014, and 2015, representing pre-intervention, post-intervention, and one year post-intervention, respectively. Data exported from ImmReg were used to compare the immunization rate, dropout rate, and timeliness of vaccination before and after the intervention. Additionally, a rapid survey was conducted to understand the willingness of parents with children due for vaccination to pay for SMS reminder messages on the immunization schedule. RESULTS Timely administration of oral polio vaccine, Quinvaxem, and measles 1 vaccine significantly increased over time from baseline to post-intervention to one year post-intervention. In particular, the timeliness of vaccination with the third dose of Quinvaxem increased from 53.6% to 65.8% to 77.2%. For measles 1 vaccine, the rate increased from 70.4% to 76.2% to 92.3%. In addition, the dropout rate from Quinvaxem 1 to Quinvaxem 3 declined from 4.2% in 2013 to 0% in 2015, and the dropout rate from Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) to measles 1 fell from 12.8% in 2013 to 0% in 2015. Full immunization coverage of children under one year old increased significantly from 75.4% in 2013 to 81.7% in 2014 to 99.2% in 2015. Also, survey results indicated that 93.3% of interviewees were willing to pay for SMS reminders for immunization. CONCLUSIONS A digital immunization registry that includes SMS reminders can improve immunization coverage and timeliness of vaccination, thereby strengthening the quality and effectiveness of immunization programs. Integrating this system into the national health information system and leveraging it for other health programs, such as maternal and child health and nutrition as well as infectious disease control, can bring more benefits to the health care system in Vietnam.
Inhibition of HSP 90 with AUY 922 Induces Synergy in HER 2-Ampli fi ed Trastuzumab-Resistant Breast andGastric Cancer

HSP90 enables the activation of many client proteins of which the most clinically validated is HER2. NVPAUY922, a potent HSP90 inhibitor, is currently in phase II clinical trials. To explore its potential clinical use in HER2-amplified breast and gastric cancers, we evaluated the effect of AUY922 alone and in combination with trastuzumab in both trastuzumab-sensitive and -resistant models. A panel of 16 human gastric and 45 breast cancer cell lines, including 16 HER2-amplified (3 and 13, respectively) cells, was treated with AUY922 over various concentrations. In both breast and gastric cancer, we used cell lines and xenograft models with conditioned trastuzumab-resistance to investigate the efficacy of AUY922 alongside trastuzumab. Effects of this combination on downstreammarkers were analyzed via Western blot analysis. AUY922 exhibited potent antiproliferative activity in the low nanomolar range (<40 nmol/L) for 59 of 61 cell lines. In both histologies, HER2-amplified cells expressed greater sensitivity to AUY than HER2-negative cells. In conditioned trastuzumab-resistant models, AUY922 showed a synergistic effect with trastuzumab. In vitro, the combination induced greater decreases in HER2, a G2 cell-cycle arrest, and increased apoptosis. In a trastuzumab-resistant gastric cancer xenograft model, the combination of AUY922 and trastuzumab showed greater antitumor efficacy than either drug alone. These data suggest that AUY922 in combination with trastuzumab has unique efficacy in trastuzumab-resistant models. The combination of HSP90 inhibition and direct HER2 blockade represents a novel approach to the treatment of HER2-amplified cancers and clinical trials based on the above data are ongoing. Mol Cancer Ther; 12(4); 509–19. 2013 AACR.
Recovery mechanisms in day-ahead electricity markets with non-convexities - Part II: Implementation and numerical evaluation

In centralized day-ahead electricity markets with marginal pricing, unit commitment costs and capacity constraints give rise to non-convexities which may result in losses to some of the participating generating units. To compensate them for these losses, a recovery mechanism is required. In Part I of this two-part paper, we present certain recovery mechanisms that result in recovery payments after the market is cleared. We also propose a methodology for evaluating the bidding strategy behavior of the participating units for each mechanism. In this paper (Part II), we apply this methodology to evaluate the performance and incentive compatibility properties of each recovery mechanism on a test case model representing the Greek joint energy/reserve day-ahead electricity market. Lastly, we perform sensitivity analysis with respect to key parameters and assumptions and we provide directions for further research.
Essays on consumers in a changing energy system

This dissertation investigates the role of households and their willingness to take part in the German energy system. As the system becomes more decentralized, the electricity value chain alters and the household roles change. The analyses examine attitudes and preferences regarding community energy, battery storage and tariffs. The findings show a potential for local and regional energy supply, improve the understanding of consumer behavior and can guide transitions towards renewables.
Color-based and Rotation Invariant Self-similarities

One big challenge in computer vision is to extract robust and discriminative local descriptors. For many applications such as object tracking, image classification or image matching, there exist appearance-based descriptors such as SIFT or learned CNN-features that provide very good results. But for some other applications such as multimodal image comparison (infra-red versus color, color versus depth, .) these descriptors failed and people resort to using the spatial distribution of self-similarities. The idea is to inform about the similarities between local regions in an image rather than the appearances of these regions at the pixel level. Nevertheless, the classical self-similarities are not invariant to rotation in the image space, so that two rotated versions of a local patch are not considered as similar and we think that many discriminative information is lost because of this weakness. In this paper, we present a method to extract rotation-invariant self similarities. In this aim, we propose to compare color descriptors of the local regions rather than the local regions themselves. Furthermore, since this comparison informs us about the relative orientations of the two local regions, we incorporate this information in the final image descriptor in order to increase the discriminative power of the system. We show that the self similarities extracted by this way are very discriminative.
The Effect of Muscle Activation on Neck Response

Prevention of neck injuries due to complex loading, such as occurs in traffic accidents, requires knowledge of neck injury mechanisms and tolerances. The influence of muscle activation on outcome of the injuries is not clearly understood. Numerical simulations of neck injury accidents can contribute to increase the understanding of injury tolerances. The finite element (FE) method is suitable because it gives data on stress and strain of individual tissues that can be used to predict injuries based on tissue level criteria. The aim of this study was to improve and validate an anatomically detailed FE model of the human cervical spine by implement neck musculature with passive and active material properties. Further, the effect of activation time and force on the stresses and strains in the cervical tissues were studied for dynamic loading due to frontal and lateral impacts. The FE model used includes the seven cervical vertebrae, the spinal ligaments, the facet joints with cartilage, the intervertebral disc, the skull base connected to a rigid head, and a spring element representation of the neck musculature. The passive muscle properties were defined with bilinear force-deformation curves and the active properties were defined using a material model based on the Hill equation. The FE model's responses were compared to volunteer experiments for frontal and lateral impacts of 15 and 7 g. Then, the active muscle properties where varied to study their effect on the motion of the skull, the stress level of the cortical and trabecular bone, and the strain of the ligaments. The FE model had a good correlation to the experimental motion corridors when the muscles activation was implemented. For the frontal impact a suitable peak muscle force was 40 N/cm2 whereas 20 N/cm2 was appropriate for the side impact. The stress levels in the cortical and trabecular bone were influenced by the point forces introduced by the muscle spring elements; therefore a more detailed model of muscle insertion would be preferable. The deformation of each spinal ligament was normalized with an appropriate failure deformation to predict soft tissue injury. For the frontal impact, the muscle activation turned out to mainly protect the upper cervical spine ligaments, while the musculature shielded all the ligaments disregarding spinal level for lateral impacts. It is concluded that the neck musculature does not have the same protective properties during different impacts loadings.
A Meta-Analytic Study Concerning the Effect of Educational Stakeholders' Perceptions of Quality of Work Life on Their Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment

Article History: Received 09.01. 2018 Received in revised form 14.05. 2018 Accepted 17.05. 2018 Available online 06.06. 2018 The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of educational stakeholders' perceptions of quality of work life on their job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The selection criteria for the inclusion of the studies for this aim were defined. As a result of the literature review based on these criteria, in total 29 studies were researched. The total sampling size of these studies is 6829. The random effects model (REM) was used to calculate the effect sizes. As a result of the analysis conducted according to REM, the general effect of educational stakeholders' perceptions of quality of work life is at strong level on organizational commitment (r = .56) and job satisfaction (r = .56). It was seen in the moderator analysis that grade level has a moderator role in the effect of quality of work life on organizational commitment as opposed to sampling participants and the country variable where the research was conducted. On the other hand, it was found out that the grade level and the country variables are moderators in the effect of quality of work life on job satisfaction as opposed to the sampling participants' variable. Based on these results, it can be expressed that quality of work life has a significant role in educational stakeholders' organizational commitment and job satisfaction. © 2018 IOJES. All rights reserved
A ultra high speed clock distribution technique using a cellular oscillator network

This paper describes a novel process-gradient insensitive GHz clock distribution technique using a Cellular Oscillator Network. With its inherent structural synchronous characteristics, the Cellular Oscillator Network can be used in microprocessors or high-speed digital logic, where ultra high speed clock distribution with picosecond order clock skew is inevitably needed. A sleeping mode technique is also presented for power minimization. This new technique is simulated and proved with typical 3 V, 0.8 /spl mu/m CMOS N-well process parameters.
Cohort study of occupational risk factors of low back pain in construction workers

OBJECTIVES To identify work related risk factors of future low back pain (LBP) in a cohort of construction workers free of LBP at the start of follow up. METHODS The Hamburg construction worker study comprises 571 male construction workers who have undergone two comprehensive interview and physical examination surveys. A cohort of 285 subjects without LBP at baseline was identified. After a follow up of 3 years, the 1 year prevalence of self reported LBP was determined in the 230 men followed up (80.7%). Prevalence ratios (PRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) of LBP at follow up according to self reported work tasks of construction workers measured at baseline were estimated from Cox's regression models which were adjusted for age, and anthropometric measures. RESULTS At follow up 71 out of 230 workers (30.9%) reported LBP during the preceding 12 months. Four work tasks (scaffolding, erecting roof structures, sawing wood, laying large sandstones) with an increased risk of 1 year prevalence of LBP at follow up were further evaluated. After further adjustment for occupation the relative risk was increased for workers who had reported ⩾2 hour/shifts laying large sandstones (PR=2.6; 95% CI 1.1 to 6.5). Work load of bricklayers was additionally estimated by an index on stone load (high exposure: PR=4.0; 95% CI 0.8 to 19.8), and an index for laying huge bricks/blocks (yes/no: PR=1.7; 95% CI 0.5 to 5.7). CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that self reported differences in brick characteristics (size and type of stone) and temporal aspects of the work of bricklayers (average hours per shift laying specified stones) can predict the future prevalence of LBP. The data have to be interpreted with caution because multiple risk factors were tested.
Fast computing method for two-stage robust network constrained Unit Commitment problem

Unit Commitment (UC) problem plays a key role in power systems' operations. Due to the strong modeling capacity of robust optimization to capture various complicated uncertainties in power systems, including those in renewable generation, load realization, demand response, and contingencies, two-stage robust UC has gained intensive attentions from both academic scholars and industry practitioners. However, such tri-level optimization problem is very challenging to solve, considering large-scale real power grids. In this research, we study new computational methods and strategies to address this challenge, including incorporating strong formulations for basic UC model, deriving new valid inequalities considering network constraints, and designing and implementing a decomposition procedure. On large-scale test instances, our solution approach leads to significantly better computational performance, compared to existing formulations or methods.