Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Liquid-phase tuning of porous PVDF-TrFE film on flexible substrate for energy harvesting

Emerging wearable and implantable biomedical energy harvesting devices demand efficient power conversion, flexible structures, and lightweight construction. This paper presents Polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE) micro-porous structures, which can be tuned to specific mechanical flexibilities and optimized for piezoelectric power conversion. Specifically, the water vapor phase separation method was developed to control microstructure formation, pore diameter, porosity, and mechanical flexibility. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of the piezoelectric layer to supporting layer Young's modulus ratio, through using both analytical calculation and experimentation. Both structure flexibility and stress-induced voltage were considered in the analyses. Specification of electromechanical coupling efficiency, made possible by carefully designed three-dimensional porous structures, was shown to increase the power output by five-fold relative to uncoupled structures. Therefore, flexible PVDF-TrFE films with tunable microstructures, paired with substrates of different rigidities, provide highly efficient designs of compact piezoelectric energy generating devices.Emerging wearable and implantable biomedical energy harvesting devices demand efficient power conversion, flexible structures, and lightweight construction. This paper presents Polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE) micro-porous structures, which can be tuned to specific mechanical flexibilities and optimized for piezoelectric power conversion. Specifically, the water vapor phase separation method was developed to control microstructure formation, pore diameter, porosity, and mechanical flexibility. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of the piezoelectric layer to supporting layer Young's modulus ratio, through using both analytical calculation and experimentation. Both structure flexibility and stress-induced voltage were considered in the analyses. Specification of electromechanical coupling efficiency, made possible by carefully designed three-dimensional porous structures, was shown to increase the power output by five-fold relative to uncoupled structures. Therefore, flexible PVDF.
MaxEWMA Control Chart for a Weibull Process with Individual Measurements

To monitor a Weibull process with individual measurements, some methods such as power transformation, inverse erf function, and Box–Cox transformation have been used to transform the Weibull data to a normal distribution. In this study, we conduct a simulation study to compare their performances in terms of the bias and mean square errors. A practical guide is recommended. Additionally, we present the maximum exponentially weighted moving average chart based on the transformation method to monitor a Weibull process with individual measurements. We compare the average run lengths of the proposed chart and the combined individual and moving range charts under the three cases including mean changes, sigma changes, and both mean and sigma changes. It is shown that the proposed control chart outperforms the combined individual and moving range charts for all three cases. Moreover, two examples are used to illustrate the applicability of the proposed control chart. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Transfer function‐noise modelling of an aquifer system in NE Italy

In this article, we use a transfer function‐noise (TFN) modelling strategy with single output and multiple/single inputs to study the relationships among a large unconfined aquifer in the upper Venetian plain (Northeast Italy), its recharge components (rainfalls and losing river) and a multi‐layered confined system located in the middle Venetian plain. Model identification from the data raises a range of difficulties when seeking models with consistent physical behaviour, but no information related to the transfer function order and the lags with no zero weights is available. Therefore we use an automatic identification procedure for TFN models. The obtained results suggest that the rainfall component is more important than the river discharge in the unconfined aquifer, and the behaviours of the deep‐confined aquifers are synchronous with that observed in the Badoere area. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Prevention of Carbonate Cementation in Petroleum Reservoirs

By the time a carbonate unit has been buried to the depths of most petroleum reservoirs, the significant question is often not how did the pores originate but rather, why are they still there. Preservation of porosity, regardless of its origin, is a consequence of one or more of the following mechanisms: (1) minimal burial; (2) reduced burial stress, generally due to overpressured pore fluids; (3) increased framework rigidity, which prevents compaction; (4) exclusion of pore waters by petroleum entry; (5) stable mineralogy; (6) permeability barriers, isolating porous intervals from diagenetic fluids; and (7) pore resurrection, a consequence of the temporary filling of pores with cement that is subsequently removed. Examples from the stratigraphic record demonstrate that each of these pore-preserving mechanisms may control reservoir quality.
PIE: A Dynamic Failure-Based Technique

A dynamic technique called PIE (propagation, infection, and execution) is presented for statistically estimating three program characteristics that affect a program's computational behavior: (1) the probability that a particular section of a program is executed, (2) the probability that the particular section affects the data state, and (3) the probability that a data state produced by that section has an effect on program output. These three characteristics can be used to predict whether faults are likely to be uncovered by software testing. >
A System for Incubations at High Gas Partial Pressure

High-pressure is a key feature of deep subsurface environments. High partial pressure of dissolved gasses plays an important role in microbial metabolism, because thermodynamic feasibility of many reactions depends on the concentration of reactants. For gases, this is controlled by their partial pressure, which can exceed 1 MPa at in situ conditions. Therefore, high hydrostatic pressure alone is not sufficient to recreate true deep subsurface in situ conditions, but the partial pressure of dissolved gasses has to be controlled as well. We developed an incubation system that allows for incubations at hydrostatic pressure up to 60 MPa, temperatures up to 120°C, and at high gas partial pressure. The composition and partial pressure of gasses can be manipulated during the experiment. To keep costs low, the system is mainly made from off-the-shelf components with only very few custom-made parts. A flexible and inert PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) incubator sleeve, which is almost impermeable for gases, holds the sample and separates it from the pressure fluid. The flexibility of the incubator sleeve allows for sub-sampling of the medium without loss of pressure. Experiments can be run in both static and flow-through mode. The incubation system described here is usable for versatile purposes, not only the incubation of microorganisms and determination of growth rates, but also for chemical degradation or extraction experiments under high gas saturation, e.g., fluid–gas–rock-interactions in relation to carbon dioxide sequestration. As an application of the system we extracted organic compounds from sub-bituminous coal using H2O as well as a H2O–CO2 mixture at elevated temperature (90°C) and pressure (5 MPa). Subsamples were taken at different time points during the incubation and analyzed by ion chromatography. Furthermore we demonstrated the applicability of the system for studies of microbial activity, using samples from the Isis mud volcano. We could detect an increase in sulfate reduction rate upon the addition of methane to the sample.
Comparison of Interface Shear Strength of Soil Nails Measured by Both Direct Shear Box Tests and Pullout Tests

The shear stress–displacement behavior and ultimate shear strength at the interface between the cement–grout nail and surrounding soil are of practical importance in the design and safety assessment of a soil nail system. The most commonly adopted method to measure the interface shear strength of a soil nail is a pullout testing method. The current study attempts to investigate the interface shear behavior between the cement-grouted materials (soil nails) and a completely decomposed granite soil using both a large-size direct shear test apparatus and a laboratory pullout test apparatus. The laboratory testing procedures are briefly described. The main test results obtained are presented, followed by discussion on the shear behavior of the soil–grout interface. The interface shear behavior measured from both the interface shear tests and the pullout tests on the same soil tested in the same or a similar condition are compared and discussed. It is shown that the shear stress–displacement behavior of the soi.
Resource allocation for security services in mobile cloud computing

Mobile cloud is a machine-to-machine service model, where a mobile device can use the cloud for searching, data mining, and multimedia processing. To protect the processed data, security services, i.e., encryption, decryption, authentications, etc., are performed in the cloud. In general, we can classify cloud security services in two categories: Critical Security (CS) service and Normal Security (NS) service. CS service provides strong security protection such as using longer key size, strict security access policies, isolations for protecting data, and so on. The CS service usually occupies more cloud computing resources, however it generates more rewards to the cloud provider since the CS service users need to pay more for using the CS service. With the increase of the number of CS and NS service users, it is important to allocate the cloud resource to maximize the system rewards with the considerations of the cloud resource consumption and incomes generated from cloud users. To address this issue, we propose a Security Service Admission Model (SSAM) based on Semi-Markov Decision Process to model the system reward for the cloud provider. We, first, define system states by a tuple represented by the numbers of cloud users and their associated security service categories, and current event type (i.e., arrival or departure). We then derive the system steady-state probability and service request blocking probability by using the proposed SSAM. Numerical results show that the obtained theoretic probabilities are consistent with our simulation results.
Indoor Outdoor Scene Classification in Digital Images

In this paper, we present a method to classify real-world digital images into indoor and outdoor scenes. Indoor class consists of four groups: bedroom, kitchen, laboratory and library. Outdoor class consists of four groups: landscape, roads, buildings and garden. Application considers real-time system and has a dedicated data-set. Input images are pre-processed and converted into gray-scale and is re-sized to “128x128” dimensions. Pre-processed images are sent to “Gabor filters”, which pre-computes filter transfer functions, which are performed on Fourier domain. The processed signal is finally sent to GIST feature extraction and the images are classified using “kNN classifier”. Most of the techniques have been based on the use of texture and color space features. As of date, we have been able to achieve 80% accuracy with respect to image classification.
Groundlevel OH radical concentration: New measurements by optical absorption

Tropospheric OH radical concentrations were observed at two locations in Germany by long-path UV absorption spectroscopy. During the summer months, noontime concentrations at sunny days averaged to 1.6×106 OH cm−3. The highest concentrations observed so far did not exceed 2.5×106 OH cm−3.The highest concentrations observed so far did not exceed 2.5×106 OH cm−3. A number of possible spectral interferences by atmospheric trace gases (SO2, CH2O, CS2) were identified, and OH concentrations, as derived after correction for those interferences (if necessary) are reported for 1979 through 1981.
Difficult management of a patient with pr10 related anaphylaxis

Proteins belonging to pathogenesis-related (PR10) ones consist in Bet v 1 homologues, proteins that have an aminoacid sequence homology with the allergen Bet v 1 from birch pollen [1]. Bet v 1 is the major allergen of birch and about 50–70% of birch pollen allergic patients, usually after respiratory sensitization, report symptoms after ingestion of fruits and vegetables, such as tree nuts, kiwi, soybean and those belonging to the Rosaceae family (apple, pear, peach, plum, apricot, almond) and Apiaceae family (celery, carrot, fennel). Other Bet v 1 homologues include Mal d 1 from apple, Pru p 1 from peach, Pru a v 1 from cherry, Pru a r 2 from apricot, Pyr c 1 from pear, Api g 1 from celery, Dau c 1 from carrot and Cor a 1 from hazelnut [2]. Many proteins homologous to Bet v 1, in particular those present in the fruits of the Rosaceae family, are extremely labile and easily degraded by heat, oxidation, procedures of extraction, pepsin digestion and they are randomly distributed in pulp and peel [3, 4]. For this reason the skin prick tests with commercial extracts of foods are less specific than those with fresh fruits and vegetables , and remain the best method for the diagnosis of food allergy in these patients [5]. Therefore, PR10 allergic patients mostly experience local reactions in the oropharyngeal mucosa (oral allergy syndrome – OAS: oral itching, swelling of the lips, tongue and throat, hoarseness and laryngeal oedema) after eating fresh foods, while they usually tolerate heat-processed foods such as commercial fruit juices. In the literature there are few articles about PR-10 related proteins induced anaphylaxis [6–8]. We describe the case of a 30-year-old girl with perennial rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma with an aggravation from February to June, who referred OAS after the ingestion of apricot, cherry and strawberry, and throat constriction, generalized urticaria, lip and palpebral oe-dema after eating apple, kiwi, peach, pear, pepper and juice with carrots, lemon and orange. We performed an allergological evaluation including skin prick tests (SPT) to aeroallergens, latex, vegetables and panallergens (apple PR10 50 µg/ml, peach Lipid Transfer Protein 50 µg/ml and palm profiling 50 µg/ml) (Alk-Abellò, Milan, Italy) and assay of specific IgE (Uni-CAP, Phadia, Uppsala, Sweden) for the positive allergens. Moreover, the culprit vegetables have been investigated by the prick by prick method. The patient had positive SPT to inhalant allergens So to confirm these results, …
Redundancy in the World of MAP Kinases: All for One

The protein kinases ERK1 and ERK2 are the effector components of the prototypical ERK1/2 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase pathway. This signaling pathway regulates cell proliferation, differentiation and survival, and is essential for embryonic development and cellular homeostasis. ERK1 and ERK2 homologs share similar biochemical properties but whether they exert specific physiological functions or act redundantly has been a matter of controversy. However, recent studies now provide compelling evidence in support of functionally redundant roles of ERK1 and ERK2 in embryonic development and physiology. In this review, we present a critical assessment of the evidence for the functional specificity or redundancy of MAP kinase isoforms. We focus on the ERK1/ERK2 pathway but also discuss the case of JNK and p38 isoforms.
Towards real-time photorealistic rendering: challenges and solutions

A growing number of real-time applications need graphics with photorealistic quality, especially in the field of training (virtual operation, driving and flightsimulation), but also in the areas of design or ergonomic research. We take a closer look at main deficiencies of today's real time graphics hardware and present solutions for several of the identified problems in the areas of antialiasing and texture-, bumpand reflection mapping. In the second part of the paper, a new method for antialiasing bump maps is explained in more detail. CR Categories and Subject Desscriptors: I.3. 1 [Computer Graphics]: Hardware Architecture – Graphics Processors, Raster Display Devices; I.3. 3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image generation. Additional
Data Dissemination Supporting Complex Event Pattern Detection

The increasing use of the Internet and the improvement in hardware technology led most of the application previously deployed in "closed" environments, such as business intelligence, smart environments, complex system software management, to federate into geographically-distributed systems. Such applications use "sense-and-respond" capabilities, i.e., they correlate basic events that could potentially occur at different sources and detect complex event patterns, in order to timely and properly react to changes that may happen within the system. In this context, a fundamental role is played by the data dissemination service that brings events from producers to consumers where complex event patterns are detected. In this paper we discuss the characteristics that a data dissemination service should have in order to support in the best way the complex event pattern detection functionality, and present an assessment of a number of technologies that can be used to disseminate data in the earlier mentioned context. We also describe how those technologies can be effectively deployed in scenarios where numerous independent data sources produce large amounts of events in the form of high-throughput streams. Finally, we present a matching between distributed application requirements and the capabilities offered by the data dissemination services used to implement them, highlighting which aspects should be considered in the design of novel middleware solutions to fill this gap.
Observational evidence of an intensifying hydrological cycle in northern Canada

Trends and variability in the 1964–2007 annual streamflow for 45 rivers spanning 5.2 × 106 km2 of northern Canada are investigated. Discharge averages 1153 km3 yr−1 with a standard deviation of 71.4 km3 yr−1 and coefficient of variation (CVQ) of 6.2% over the 44‐year period. A trend analysis reveals a recent (1989–2007) 15.5% increase in the annual flows owing to much‐above average values recorded over the past decade. Trends in CVQ computed from 11‐year moving windows of annual streamflows exhibit spatially coherent signals with increasing variability across most of northern Canada, excluding some rivers with outlets to the Labrador Sea and eastern James Bay. For the period of interest, 46% and 30% of the available gauged area and river discharge, respectively, experienced detectable increases in variability. This provides observational evidence of an intensifying hydrological cycle in northern Canada, consistent with other regions of the pan‐Arctic domain.
Organellar oligopeptidase (OOP) provides a complementary pathway for targeting peptide degradation in mitochondria and chloroplasts

Significance Import of proteins to mitochondria and chloroplasts is essential for organelle biogenesis and organism survival. Proteins to be imported contain an N-terminal peptide targeting the protein to the correct organelle. The targeting peptides are cleaved off after the completed import. Because the free targeting peptides are potentially toxic to organellar activities, they must be removed. Here we report the identification and characterization of a unique mitochondrial and chloroplastic oligopeptidase, organellar oligopeptidase, that provides a complementary pathway for the degradation of targeting peptides and also participates in general organellar quality control mechanisms degrading the peptides produced from complete protein degradation. Both mitochondria and chloroplasts contain distinct proteolytic systems for precursor protein processing catalyzed by the mitochondrial and stromal processing peptidases and for the degradation of targeting peptides catalyzed by presequence protease. Here, we have identified and characterized a component of the organellar proteolytic systems in Arabidopsis thaliana, the organellar oligopeptidase, OOP (At5g65620). OOP belongs to the M3A family of peptide-degrading metalloproteases. Using two independent in vivo methods, we show that the protease is dually localized to mitochondria and chloroplasts. Furthermore, we localized the OPP homolog At5g10540 to the cytosol. Analysis of peptide degradation by OOP revealed substrate size restriction from 8 to 23 aa residues. Short mitochondrial targeting peptides (presequence of the ribosomal protein L29 and presequence of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid deaminase 1) and N- and C-terminal fragments derived from the presequence of the ATPase beta subunit ranging in size from 11 to 20 aa could be degraded. MS analysis showed that OOP does not exhibit a strict cleavage pattern but shows a weak preference for hydrophobic residues (F/L) at the P1 position. The crystal structures of OOP, at 1.8–1.9 Å, exhibit an ellipsoidal shape consisting of two major domains enclosing the catalytic cavity of 3,000 Å3. The structural and biochemical data suggest that the protein undergoes conformational changes to allow peptide binding and proteolysis. Our results demonstrate the complementary role of OOP in targeting-peptide degradation in mitochondria and chloroplasts.
Effects of column conditions on the first‐order rate modeling of nonequilibrium solute breakthrough: Cylindrical macropores versus spherical media

When first‐order mass transfer models are used to interpret diffusion‐based nonequilibrium transport through soil columns, significant misinterpretations may result if experimental impacts on the model fits are not well understood. For the specific case of slow diffusion in spherical sorbent particles, we have previously demonstrated the manner in which estimated rate constants vary with a dimensionless “exposure time” of solute to sorbent. In the current work we extend our quantitative analysis of these concerns to the case of cylindrical macropore flow, where the geometry of the diffusion matrix is that of an annular region surrounding a central flow‐permeable cylinder. Our results show that similar to the spherical sorbent case, variations in the first‐order coefficient fitted to macropore column data are not necessarily related to variation in underlying diffusion rates and that the variations are similarly dependent upon the column run conditions. However, for the macropore case the proposed nondimensional timescale is even more successful at characterizing the variation in the fitted first‐order mass transfer parameter. On the basis of these results we are able to further generalize our conclusions with regard to the effects of experimental conditions such as solute retardation factor (sorption affinity) and solute input conditions (pulse duration). For short exposure times to solute (relative to the characteristic time for diffusion) the ratio of the fitted first‐order rate coefficient to the underlying diffusion rate (K) varies with dimensionless contact time (т) in a consistent manner (K ∼ т−0.4) irrespective of geometry. Only at long exposure time does the fitted K approach a value that we can independently derive on the basis of equivalent second moments.