Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strategies for the Visualization of Multiple Co-located Vector Fields

Fluids research often involvesdevelopingtheoriesabout the complex relationshipsbetween multi plescalar and vector quantities. We discuss strategies for effectively visualizingco-located vector fields, enabling the key physical structures of one vector field to be clearly understoodwithin the context of a related vector field. We describe the range of effects that can be obtained by combiningseveral existingflow visualization techniques for thepurposes of analyzingmultiplevector fields. Results are shown throughtwo distinctly different scientific applications: the visualization of velocity and vorticity fields in experimentally acquired turbulent boundary layer flow data, and thevisualization of velocity andmagnetic fields in computational simulationsof astrophysical jets.
Influence of atmospheric plasma-induced graft polymerization of DADMAC into cotton on dyeing with acid dyes

Abstract The primary objective of this work was to generate dyes sites in cotton fiber for acid dyes via free radical graft polymerization of diallyldimethylammonium chloride (DADMAC), to confer cationized cotton, and evaluate the dyeability of the cationized cotton toward acid dyes, which is unprecedented. Plasma-induced graft polymerization of DADMAC on cotton, using different plasma conditions, followed by dyeing with different acid dyes was studied. The color yield of dyed cotton was evaluated using K/S. Light fastness, color change, and staining following accelerated washing cycles were carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of cotton cationization. Cross-section dyed cotton was studied using scanning electron microscopy and showed deep dyeing of acid dyes into cotton fibers. This approach resulted in significant dye uptake into the fibers and considerably reduced the need for effluent treatment.
Allocating roles in extreme teams

New domains are emerging that impose new requirements for teamwork, where current teamwork infrastructure is inadequate. One such large class of application require extreme teams, which are large teams that need (soft) real-time response given dynamic tasks, and where many resource limited agents have similar functionality, but possibly varied capability. For instance, when responding to a disaster, fire fighters and paramedics comprise an extreme team as they must respond rapidly to dynamic tasks; and fire fighters can all extinguish fires although their capability to extinguish a particular fire quickly will depend on their initial distance from that fire.
Anonymous Message Authentication - Universally Composable Definition and Construction

PCT No. PCT/JP96/02338 Sec. 371 Date Apr. 16, 1997 Sec. 102(e) Date Apr. 16, 1997 PCT Filed Aug. 21, 1996 PCT Pub. No. WO97/08593 PCT Pub. Date Mar. 6, 1997A machine-side position detection control unit (20) is provided in order to read a position feedback signal of a position detector (64) associated with a control axis (X axis) requiring machine-side position detection for controlling of a closed loop system. This makes unnecessary for providing a position detection control unit in a servoamplifier (30, 40, 50) for each axis. A numerical control unit (10) and the servoamplifier (30, 40, 50) for each axis are connected in a daisy chain form by a serial communication line.
Numerical Study of Crack Propagation in Stiff Clays

Many stiff clays forming part of natural slopes and earth dams exist in the fissured state. When these cracks are subjected to gravity induced normal and shear stresses they may propagate. The present discussion presents a numerical method to study the propagation direction of cracks under stress fields similar to those found in the field. Not only did the results on one crack propagation direction obtained from the numerical method and the analytical results agree well, but numerical results have been used to investigate the mechanisms of the whole process of two horizontal cracks initiation and propagation and coalescence in stiff soils.
The [Everyday] Future by Design: Opportunities for the Design Exploration of Everyday Sustainability

Situated within the interaction design and Human-Computer Interaction spaces, this design led research is concerned with the development of ongoing creative and adaptable approaches towards everyday sustainability. Grounded in the theoretical concepts of "design futuring" and "undesign", this research builds upon past design interventions, contextual examples, design philosophy and literature, and adopts a Research through Design approach.
A Battery of Transcription Factors Involved in the Regulation of Secondary Cell Wall Biosynthesis in Arabidopsis

SECONDARY WALL-ASSOCIATED NAC DOMAIN PROTEIN1 (SND1) is a master transcriptional switch activating the developmental program of secondary wall biosynthesis. Here, we demonstrate that a battery of SND1-regulated transcription factors is required for normal secondary wall biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana. The expression of 11 SND1-regulated transcription factors, namely, SND2, SND3, MYB103, MYB85, MYB52, MYB54, MYB69, MYB42, MYB43, MYB20, and KNAT7 (a Knotted1-like homeodomain protein), was developmentally associated with cells undergoing secondary wall thickening. Of these, dominant repression of SND2, SND3, MYB103, MYB85, MYB52, MYB54, and KNAT7 significantly reduced secondary wall thickening in fiber cells. Overexpression of SND2, SND3, and MYB103 increased secondary wall thickening in fibers, and overexpression of MYB85 led to ectopic deposition of lignin in epidermal and cortical cells in stems. Furthermore, SND2, SND3, MYB103, MYB85, MYB52, and MYB54 were able to induce secondary wall biosynthetic genes. Direct target analysis using the estrogen-inducible system revealed that MYB46, SND3, MYB103, and KNAT7 were direct targets of SND1 and also of its close homologs, NST1, NST2, and vessel-specific VND6 and VND7. Together, these results demonstrate that a transcriptional network consisting of SND1 and its downstream targets is involved in regulating secondary wall biosynthesis in fibers and that NST1, NST2, VND6, and VND7 are functional homologs of SND1 that regulate the same downstream targets in different cell types.
ANTIBIOTICS NANOSUSPENSION: A REVIEW

Nanosuspensions are colloidal dispersions and biphasic system consisting of drug particles dispersed in an aqueous vehicle in which the diameter of the suspended particle is less than 1μm in size. Many drugs including antibiotics are having poor solubility. Nanosuspensions have proven to be a better alternative over other approaches currently available for improving bioavailability of such drugs with low solubility. This review describes the methods of pharmaceutical nanosuspension of antibiotic formulations and pharmaceutical applications in drug delivery. Keywords: Nanosuspension, Bioavailability, Solubility
Emergent behavior of cells on microfabricated soft polymeric substrates

In recent years, cell based bio-actuators like cardiomyocytes and skeletal muscle cells have emerged as popular choices for powering biological machines consisting of soft polymeric scaffolds at the micro and macro scales. This is owing to their unique ability to generate spontaneous, synchronous contractions either autonomously or under externally applied fields. Most of the biological machine designs reported in literature use single cells or cell clusters conjugated with biocompatible soft polymers like polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and hydrogels to produce some form of locomotion by converting chemical energy of the cells to mechanical energy. The mode of locomotion may vary, but the fundamental mechanism that these biological machines exploit to achieve locomotion stems from cell substrate interactions leading to large deformations of the substrates (relative to the cell size). However, the effect of such large scale, dynamic deformation of the substrates on the cellular and cluster level organization of the cells remains elusive. This dissertation tries to explore the emergent behavior of cells on different types of micro-scale deformable, soft polymeric substrates. In the first part of the dissertation, contractile dynamics of primary cardiomyocyte clusters is studied by culturing them on deformable thin polymeric films. The cell clusters beat and generate sufficient forces to deform the substrates out of plane. Over time, the clusters reorient their force dipoles along the direction of maximum compliance. This suggests that the cells are capable of sensing substrate deformations through a mechanosensitive feedback mechanism and dynamically reorganizing themselves. Results are further validated through finite element analysis.
Symbolically analyzing security protocols using tamarin

During the last three decades, there has been considerable research devoted to the symbolic analysis of security protocols and existing tools have had considerable success both in detecting attacks on protocols and showing their absence. Nevertheless, there is still a large discrepancy between the symbolic models that one specifies on paper and the models that can be effectively analyzed by tools.
Swell Propagation and Nearshore Wave Climate

Abstract : A detailed study of swell wave conditions in the southern Pacific Ocean has been performed with particular emphasis on the western Southern American coastline. This study was one part of an overall wave hindcasting investigation undertaken for the Servicio Hidrografico y Oceanografico de la Armada de Chile (SHOA) to define the inshore wave climate at various locations along the Chilean seaboard. Considerable costal infrastructure has been developed in Chile over the last two decades, and the impetus for this study was based on concerns with the lack of consistency utilized in the coastal engineering design process, beginning with, but not limited to, the definition of the wave conditions. The available wave records in Chile are of very limited duration, thus many designers rely on a variety of wave data sources ranging from ship observations to hindcast wave data of various types and flavors. One of the major issues identified was that engineering structures have often been developed using data with relatively simplistic wave definitions, employing integrated wave parameters, such as the characteristic wave height (Hm0), peak wave period (Tp) and the mean wave direction (MWD), As will be shown in this paper, the wave climate in Chile is complex and it is important that appropriately complex wave analysis techniques be employed.
A distributed QoS routing algorithm in ad hoc network

In this paper, we propose a new distributed QoS routing algorithm - LMLAR (local multicast location-aided routing) algorithm. The key idea of the proposed algorithm is to utilize the local multicast mechanism and the location information to select the route The simulation shows that the LMLAR algorithm can acquire the higher routing success ratio and the lower message complexity. The LMLAR algorithm is feasible to highly dynamic environments in the ad hoc network.
Brain morphological alternation in chronic pain patients with neuropathic characteristics

Background Neuropathic characteristics are highly involved in the development of chronic pain both physically and psychologically. However, little is known about the relationship between neuropathic characteristics and brain morphological alteration. Objectives The aim of this study is to investigate the mechanisms of chronic pain development by examining the above-mentioned relationships by voxel-based morphometry in patients with chronic pain. Methods First, we assessed neuropathic characteristics using the painDETECT Questionnaire in 12 chronic pain patients. Second, to assess the gray matter volume changes by voxel-based morphometry, we conducted magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. We applied multiregression analysis of these two assessment methods. Results There were significant positive correlations between painDETECT Questionnaire scores and the gray matter volume in the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex and right posterior cingulate cortex. Conclusions Our findings suggest that neuropathic characteristics strongly affect the brain regions related to modulation of pain in patients with chronic pain and, therefore, contribute to the severity of chronic pain.
Dynamic changes in cytokine levels in serum and synovial fluid following filtration leukocytapheresis therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

We attempted to determine whether various cytokine levels in the serum and synovial fluid (SF) of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients are influenced by the performance of filtration leukocytapheresis (LCP). The filtration LCP procedure that used a Cellsorba® column (LCP group: n=22; responder subgroup: n=17, non‐responder subgroup: n=5) or sham apheresis (control group; n=7) was repeated three times at 1‐week intervals. Serum (LCP group, n=22; control group, n=7) and SF (LCP group, n=6; control group, n=3) samples were collected before and after LCP. Levels of tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα), interleukins (IL‐1β, IL–2, IL‐6, IL‐8, IL‐10, and IL‐15), granulocyte–macrophage colony–stimulating factor (GM‐CSF), monocyte chemoattractant protein–1 (MCP‐1), RANTES were measured by an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Serum TNFα, IL‐15, and RANTES were significantly reduced only in the LCP group. Serum IL‐10 significantly increased only in the LCP group. In the LCP subgroup, serum IL‐15, GM‐CSF, and RANTES levels were reduced significantly, while serum IL‐10 levels increased significantly only in the responder group after treatment. Serum TNFα levels were reduced significantly in both subgroups. Changes in serum IL‐10 correlated positively with the improvement of patient's assessment of pain and global severity, and physician's assessment of global severity. These results indicate that the removal of leukocytes from the peripheral blood of RA patients provokes dynamic changes in some cytokine levels in the serum and/or synovial fluid. These changes may explain some of the mechanisms by which the articular symptoms are improved by filtration LCP. J. Clin. Apheresis. 16:74–81, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Induction of Cancerous Stem Cells during Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation*

Background: Cancer stem cells are responsible for tumorigenesis; however, the developmental process is poorly understood. Results: Differentiating stem cells in aberrant environments are subjected to carcinogenic stress, leading to genomic instabilization, mutation inductions, and cellular transformation with stemness characteristics. Conclusion: Aberrant environment for differentiation risks cancerous stem cell development. Significance: This is the first report showing normal stem cell transformation into malignant counterparts and their process. Stem cell maintenance depends on their surrounding microenvironment, and aberrancies in the environment have been associated with tumorigenesis. However, it remains to be elucidated whether an environmental aberrancy can act as a carcinogenic stress for cellular transformation of differentiating stem cells into cancer stem cells. Here, utilizing mouse embryonic stem cells as a model, it was illustrated that environmental aberrancy during differentiation leads to the emergence of pluripotent cells showing cancerous characteristics. Analogous to precancerous stages, DNA lesions were spontaneously accumulated during embryonic stem cell differentiation under aberrational environments, which activates barrier responses such as senescence and apoptosis. However, overwhelming such barrier responses, piled-up spheres were subsequently induced from the previously senescent cells. The sphere cells exhibit aneuploidy and dysfunction of the Arf-p53 module as well as enhanced tumorigenicity and a strong self-renewal capacity, suggesting development of cancerous stem cells. Our current study suggests that stem cells differentiating in an aberrational environment are at risk of cellular transformation into malignant counterparts.
A Hybrid GRASP with Perturbations for the Steiner Problem in Graphs

We propose and describe a hybrid GRASP with weight perturbations and adaptive path-relinking heuristic (HGP + PR) for the Steiner problem in graphs. In this multi-start approach, the greedy randomized construction phase of a GRASP is replaced by the use of several construction heuristics with a weight perturbation strategy that combines intensification and diversification elements, as in a strategic oscillation approach. The improvement phase circularly explores two different local search strategies. The first uses anode-based neighborhood for local search, while the second uses a key-path-based neighborhood. An adaptive path-relinking technique is applied to a set of elite solutions as apost-optimization strategy. Computational results on a broad set of benchmark problems illustrate the effectiveness and the robustness of our heuristic, which is very competitive when compared to other approximate algorithms.
Moving East: how the transnational tobacco industry gained entry to the emerging markets of the former Soviet Union—part I: establishing cigarette imports

Objectives: To identify British American Tobacco’s (BAT) reasons for targeting the former Soviet Union following its collapse in 1991 and the initial strategies BAT used to enter the region. Design: Analysis of tobacco industry documents held at the Guildford BAT archive. Results: Desire to expand to new markets was based in part on the decline in old markets. The large population, proximity to China, scope to expand sales to women and, in Central Asia, a young population with high growth rates made the former Soviet Union particularly attractive. High consumption rates and unfilled demand caused by previous shortages offered potential for rapid returns on investment. A series of steps were taken to penetrate the markets with the initial focus on establishing imports. The documents suggest that BAT encouraged the use of aid money and barter trade to fund imports and directed the smuggling of cigarettes which graduated from an opportunistic strategy to a highly organised operation. In establishing a market presence, promotion of BAT’s brands and corporate image were paramount, and used synonymously to promote both the cigarettes and the company. The tobacco industry targeted young people and women. It used the allure of western products to promote its brands and brand stretching and corporate imagery to pre-empt future marketing restrictions. Conclusions: BAT used the chaotic conditions in the immediate post-transition period in the former Soviet Union to exploit legislative loopholes and ensure illegal cigarette imports. Governments of countries targeted by the tobacco industry need to be aware of industry tactics and develop adequate tobacco control policies in order to prevent the exploitation of vulnerable populations. Marketing restrictions that focus on advertising without restricting the use of brand or company promotions will have a limited impact.
Epipolar geometry and log-polar transform in wide baseline stereo matching

This paper presents an interesting observation that epipolar geometry and log-polar transform can be naturally combined by setting the center of the log-polar transform into the epipoles. This choice preserves the linearity of the epipolar lines. Moreover, the setting is especially advantageous, when camera moves towards the optical axis of the camera as the log-polar transform compensates the large scale changes in the scene. This practically implies that conventional matching techniques can be used with wide baseline images. We discuss the approach with both calibrated and uncalibrated cameras and show some dense wide baseline reconstruction examples where the epipoles are close to the image centers.
Unsupervised Arabic Dialect Adaptation with Self-Training

Useful training data for automatic speech recognition systems of colloquial speech is usually limited to expensive in-domain transcription. Broadcast news is an appealing source of easily available data to bootstrap into a new dialect. However, some languages, like Arabic, have deep linguistic differences resulting in poor cross domain performance. If no in-domain transcripts are available, but a large amount of indomain audio is, self-training may be a suitable technique to bootstrap into the domain. In this work, we attempt to adapt Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) models to Levantine Arabic without any in-domain manual transcription. We contrast with varying amounts of in-domain transcription and show that 1) Self-training is effective with only one hour of indomain transcripts. 2) Self-training is not a suitable solution to improve strong MSA models on Levantine. 3) Two metrics that quantify model bias predict self-training success. 4) Model bias explains the failure of self-training to adapt across strong domain mismatch.
Fumarole-Supported Islands of Biodiversity within a Hyperarid, High-Elevation Landscape on Socompa Volcano, Puna de Atacama, Andes

ABSTRACT Fumarolic activity supports the growth of mat-like photoautotrophic communities near the summit (at 6,051 m) of Socompa Volcano in the arid core of the Andes mountains. These communities are isolated within a barren, high-elevation landscape where sparse vascular plants extend to only 4,600 m. Here, we combine biogeochemical and molecular-phylogenetic approaches to characterize the bacterial and eucaryotic assemblages associated with fumarolic and nonfumarolic grounds on Socompa. Small-subunit rRNA genes were PCR amplified, cloned, and sequenced from two fumarolic soil samples and two reference soil samples, including the volcanic debris that covers most of the mountain. The nonfumarolic, dry, volcanic soil was similar in nutrient status to the most extreme Antarctic Dry Valley or Atacama Desert soils, hosted relatively limited microbial communities dominated by Actinobacteria and Fungi, and contained no photoautotrophs. In contrast, modest fumarolic inputs were associated with elevated soil moisture and nutrient levels, the presence of chlorophyll a, and 13C-rich soil organic carbon. Moreover, this soil hosted diverse photoautotroph-dominated assemblages that contained novel lineages and exhibited structure and composition comparable to those of a wetland near the base of Socompa (3,661-m elevation). Fumarole-associated eucaryotes were particularly diverse, with an abundance of green algal lineages and a novel clade of microarthropods. Our data suggest that volcanic degassing of water and 13C-rich CO2 sustains fumarole-associated primary producers, leading to a complex microbial ecosystem within this otherwise barren landscape. Finally, we found that human activities have likely impacted the fumarolic soils and that fumarole-supported photoautotrophic communities may be exceptionally sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance.