Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of an air cushioning material based on a novel idea

The air cushioning material introduced in this paper as a new packaging material represents a new steadying and cushioning system using air pressures. The material is a two-layer structure consisting of an airtight chamber (air chamber) filled with air and a urethane chamber holding flexible and resilient urethane that permits free air passage. Ordinary air cushioning materials have drawbacks in that they repeat expansion and contraction according to changes in atmospheric pressure and temperature during long storage or transportation to remote destinations. While their expansion may damage the case or the packaged object, their contraction may cause a drop in steadying pressures, so that the contents may move about inside and eventually sustain damage. The two-layer structure of the new material rectifies the shortcoming of ordinary air cushioning materials that they may be affected greatly by temperature changes. Also, the greatly improved flexibility of the packaging material opens up possibilities for far wider applications in packaging precision devices and machinery. The airtight chamber to be filled with air is provided with an air charge port and an air discharge port, which may be used to control the charged air pressure. The desirable air pressure is such that the urethane in the urethane chamber is compressed to about half the ordinary size. Since it can be checked visually or tactually, the charging of air, which used to be a delicate and rather difficult operation, is easy. Conventionally, most of the packaging materials were of throw-away type and thus handled as waste materials. The new air cushioning material, which is surfaced with a strong wear-resistant cloth, is designed for repetitive use, so that it will contribute greatly to the reduction of wastes if systematic recovery is carried out. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Drip Hydraulics Program

Date iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my senior project advisor, Dr. Howes, for all of his help and understanding throughout this process. He has been my mentor during the most arduous years of my life pushing me to achieve great things in the field of water. Secondly, I would like to thank Dr. Burt to whom I owe thanks for paving the way down this long path on which I have embarked. iv ABSTRACT This senior project report lays out the production of drip hydraulics software composed in Microsoft Excel and backed by coding in Visual Basic for Applications. The program performs 2 main functions useful in the design of irrigation systems. The first is based on performing single hose computations under three different circumstances. It can solve for the average emitter flow rate given the hose inlet pressure, the inlet pressure given the average emitter flow rate, and can model hose pressures and flow rates while flushing. The second function is to place a manifold in the hydraulically optimum location on a slope. One advantage of this software over its former DOS version is the designer has access to all of the data used in the calculations including the entire Bernoulli tables that model flows and pressures at every emitter in the field. As this could also be a point of weakness, great effort was put into making the software simple to follow and displaying pertinent information in intuitive locations. Throughout the creation of this program, results were compared against the original to ensure it yielded similar answers. However, since the two use drastically different ways to narrow in on a solution, it is impossible to match results exactly. Regardless, various trial inputs and results were recorded using both platforms. These can be seen in Appendix C. All things considered, this project still came within 1% of the results of the original on 84% of the computations and within 10% on 97% of the computations. v DISCLAIMER STATEMENT The university makes it clear that the information forwarded herewith is a project resulting from a class assignment and has been graded and accepted only as a fulfillment of a course requirement. Acceptance by the university does not imply technical accuracy or reliability. Any use of the information in this report is made by the user(s) at his/her own risk, which may include catastrophic failure of …
Handwriting Recognition Using Time-Order of Lexical and Signal Co-Occurrences

Letter-polygram based Symbolic Indirect Correlation is a new method that offers significant advantages for ordered unsegmented signals. However, its application to on -line, cursive handwriting requires solving several difficult problems. (1) Reference strings of words must satisfy certa in uniformity properties on their lexical match with the lexicon of unknown words. (2) The Viterbi algorithm must be modified and trained to extract polygram -length feature matches from both the reference string and the query. (3) Efficient permutation matching algorithms are required for the comparison of lexical and feature permutations. We present our analyses, simulations and current status, and solicit suggestions to overcome these problems.
Mixotrophy in the Newly Described Phototrophic Dinoflagellate Woloszynskia cincta from Western Korean Waters: Feeding Mechanism, Prey Species and Effect of Prey Concentration

ABSTRACT. Woloszynskia species are dinoflagellates in the order Suessiales inhabiting marine or freshwater environments; their ecophysiology has not been well investigated, in particular, their trophic modes have yet to be elucidated. Previous studies have reported that all Woloszynskia species are photosynthetic, although their mixotrophic abilities have not been explored. We isolated a dinoflagellate from coastal waters in western Korea and established clonal cultures of this dinoflagellate. On the basis of morphology and analyses of the small/large subunit rRNA gene (GenBank accession number=FR690459), we identified this dinoflagellate as Woloszynskia cincta. We further established that this dinoflagellate is a mixotrophic species. We found that W. cincta fed on algal prey using a peduncle. Among the diverse prey provided, W. cincta ingested those algal species that had equivalent spherical diameters (ESDs) ≤12.6 μm, exceptions being the diatom Skeletonema costatum and the dinoflagellate Prorocentrum minimum. However, W. cincta did not feed on larger algal species that had ESDs≥15 μm. The specific growth rates for W. cincta increased continuously with increasing mean prey concentration before saturating at a concentration of ca. 134 ng C/ml (1,340 cells/ml) when Heterosigma akashiwo was used as food. The maximum specific growth rate (i.e. mixotrophic growth) of W. cincta feeding on H. akashiwo was 0.499 d−1 at 20 °C under illumination of 20 μE/m2/s on a 14:10 h light–dark cycle, whereas its growth rate (i.e. phototrophic growth) under the same light conditions without added prey was 0.040 d−1. The maximum ingestion and clearance rates of W. cincta feeding on H. akashiwo were 0.49 ng C/grazer/d (4.9 cells/grazer/d) and 1.9 μl/grazer/h, respectively. The calculated grazing coefficients for W. cincta on co‐occurring H. akashiwo were up to 1.1 d−1. The results of the present study suggest that grazing by W. cincta can have a potentially considerable impact on prey algal populations.
The Histone Modifications Governing TFF1 Transcription Mediated by Estrogen Receptor*

Transcription regulation by histone modifications is a major contributing factor to the structural and functional diversity in biology. These modifications are encrypted as histone codes or histone languages and function to establish and maintain heritable epigenetic codes that define the identity and the fate of the cell. Despite recent advances revealing numerous histone modifications associated with transcription regulation, how such modifications dictate the process of transcription is not fully understood. Here we describe spatial and temporal analyses of the histone modifications that are introduced during estrogen receptor α (ERα)-activated transcription. We demonstrated that aborting RNA polymerase II caused a disruption of the histone modifications that are associated with transcription elongation but had a minimal effect on modifications deposited during transcription initiation. We also found that the histone H3S10 phosphorylation mark is catalyzed by mitogen- and stress-activated protein kinase 1 (MSK1) and is recognized by a 14-3-3ζ/14-3-3ϵ heterodimer through its interaction with H3K4 trimethyltransferase SMYD3 and the p52 subunit of TFIIH. We showed that H3S10 phosphorylation is a prerequisite for H3K4 trimethylation. In addition, we demonstrated that SET8/PR-Set7/KMT5A is required for ERα-regulated transcription and its catalyzed H4K20 monomethylation is implicated in both transcription initiation and elongation. Our experiments provide a relatively comprehensive analysis of histone modifications associated with ERα-regulated transcription and define the biological meaning of several key components of the histone code that governs ERα-regulated transcription.
Preparing Against Future Terror Attacks? A Case of Large UK Firms

This paper attempts to examine the potential viability of the so-called public-private partnership in fighting international terrorism. In the spirit of ‘rentseeking’ approach, a simple model of public-private cooperation is developed, enabling us to identify the weaknesses and strengths of such operation. In testing the potentials of the scheme and in measuring the extent of rent-seeking, the research has conducted a qualitative survey (questionnaire and interviews), and a quantitative analysis of 250 large UK based businesses of selected SIC. The research finds that whilst nearly 40% of firms being in favour of some form of PPP, a significant majority of such firms believe that the government information vis-a-vis terror attack is either misleading, inaccurate or exaggerated. In realising a workable approach and on avoiding any possible selection bias, the research uses a two-step Heckman model. This arises from the fact identified by the research that, on the whole, once firms have decided to trust government’s information on terror threat, then they appear to become sensitive to the economic viability (value for money) of their proceeding with a contingency plan against possible terror attack. The research identifies a strong case of rent-seeking by both the officials, and by those firms who provide counter-terror goods/services for government. In particular, the partial elasticity relating trust to firm’s preparedness has turned out to be large and highly statistically significant. In short, the research concludes, based on the survey’s findings, that any PPP being a one-way relationship in favour of government, and hence one must promote the idea of private businesses conducting risk assessment of terrorist threat, rather than relying on the potentially politically-adjusted information publicized by the rent-seeking officials.
Automatic Stencil Code Generation- Ph.D. Thesis Proposal

Stencil-based kernels constitute the core of many scientific applications on block-structured grids. These calculations form the basis for a wide range of scientific applications from simple Jacobi iterations to complex multigrid and block structured adaptive PDE solvers. Unfortunately, these codes achieve a low fraction of peak performance, due primarily to the disparity between processor and main memory speeds. I propose for my Ph.D. dissertation research to develop an automatic system to generate highly efficient, platform-adapted implementations of stencil kernels. In practice, performance is a complex function of many factors, including compiler technology, machine architecture, instruction scheduling, and memory access behavior. However, through the use of performance models and search, we can generate very good, if not optimal stencil code. This tuned code can be over twice as fast as untuned code.
Algorithm for Mining Web Access Patterns Based on User Access Sequences

Through analysis of user access sequences, this research studies the browsing behaviors of web users and pro- poses a user access pattern mining algorithm based on the maximal forward reference sequence to determine frequent ac- cess paths. Experiments have shown that this effective algorithm could obtain a satisfactory result. This algorithm is supe- rior to the traditional Full Scan algorithm in terms of execution time and performance.
CXCL10 Production from Cytomegalovirus-Stimulated Microglia Is Regulated by both Human and Viral Interleukin-10

ABSTRACT Glial cells orchestrate immunocyte recruitment to focal areas of viral infection within the brain and synchronize immune cell functions through a regulated network of cytokines and chemokines. Since recruitment of T lymphocytes plays a critical role in resolving cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, we investigated the production of a T-cell chemoattractant, CXCL10 (gamma interferon-inducible protein 10) in response to viral infection of human glial cells. Infection with CMV was found to elicit the production of CXCL10 from primary microglial cells but not from astrocytes. This CXCL10 expression was not dependent on secondary protein synthesis but did require the phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase. In addition, migration of activated lymphocytes toward supernatants from CMV-stimulated microglial cells was partially suppressed by anti-CXCL10 antibodies. Since regulation of central nervous system inflammation is essential to allow viral clearance without immunopathology, microglial cells were then treated with anti-inflammatory cytokines. CMV-induced CXCL10 production from microglial cells was suppressed following treatment with interleukin-10 (IL-10) and IL-4 but not following treatment with transforming growth factor β. The IL-10-mediated inhibition of CXCL10 production was associated with decreased CMV-induced NF-κB activation but not decreased p38 MAP kinase phosphorylation. Finally, CMV infection of fully permissive astrocytes resulted in mRNA expression for the viral homologue to human IL-10 (i.e., cmvIL-10 [UL111a]) in its spliced form and conditioned medium from CMV-infected astrocytes inhibited virus-induced CXCL10 production from microglial cells through the IL-10 receptor. These findings present yet another mechanism through which CMV may subvert host immune responses.
Nilotinib versus imatinib

In a recent online paper on del13q14 chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), Garg at al state that neither pattern of deletion (monoversus biallelic) nor the percentage of deleted cells influences risk of progression. Interestingly, in 12 patients who had a repeat fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis, an increase in the number of deleted cells was detected. In light of these data, we reviewed our del13q14-CLL patients who were monitored by FISH during their clinical course. Between 2001 and 2009, del13q14 was identified as the sole abnormality in 137 of 352 CLL patients (39%). Baseline FISH analysis was performed at diagnosis or within 12 months (probes: LSID13S319 and LSI-Rb1, LSI-ATM, LSI-p53, CEP12; Vysis, Downers Grove, Ill). D13S319 deletion was monoallelic in 121 cases (88%) and biallelic in 16. The median percentage of abnormal nuclei was 50% (range, 15%-96%) and was higher in patients with a biallelic pattern (73% vs 49%; P < .0001, MannWhitney test). With a median follow-up of 59 months (range, 12-124 months), the 5-year treatment-free survival rate was 54% (Kaplan-Meier). As a continuous variable, the baseline percentage of abnormal nuclei was related to progression (hazard ratio [HR], 1.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01-1.04; P 1⁄4 .0002; Cox regression), whereas the pattern of deletion was not significant. Repeat FISH analyses were performed on 100 patients (median interval from baseline to repeat FISH analysis, 36 months; range, 9-97 months). A significant increase in the proportion of del13q14 cells was detected (P < .0001, Wilcoxon matched pairs), and change in the percentage of deleted cells per unit of time (1 month) significantly affected the risk of treatment requirement (HR, 2.03; P 1⁄4 .016; 95% CI, 2.03-3.6; Cox regression). Although del13q14 CLL carries a good prognosis, it is clinically and biologically heterogeneous. Although prognostic impact of baseline FISH profile is controversial, our experience confirms that the percentage of deleted cells at diagnosis represents an useful prognostic parameter. Additionally, we advise FISH monitoring for a dynamic outcome estimate and to guide clinical surveillance. FUNDING SOURCES No specific funding was disclosed.
The Enhancer of Trithorax and Polycomb Corto Interacts with Cyclin G in Drosophila

Background Polycomb (PcG) and trithorax (trxG) genes encode proteins involved in the maintenance of gene expression patterns, notably Hox genes, throughout development. PcG proteins are required for long-term gene repression whereas TrxG proteins are positive regulators that counteract PcG action. PcG and TrxG proteins form large complexes that bind chromatin at overlapping sites called Polycomb and Trithorax Response Elements (PRE/TRE). A third class of proteins, so-called “Enhancers of Trithorax and Polycomb” (ETP), interacts with either complexes, behaving sometimes as repressors and sometimes as activators. The role of ETP proteins is largely unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings In a two-hybrid screen, we identified Cyclin G (CycG) as a partner of the Drosophila ETP Corto. Inactivation of CycG by RNA interference highlights its essential role during development. We show here that Corto and CycG directly interact and bind to each other in embryos and S2 cells. Moreover, CycG is targeted to polytene chromosomes where it co-localizes at multiple sites with Corto and with the PcG factor Polyhomeotic (PH). We observed that corto is involved in maintaining Abd-B repression outside its normal expression domain in embryos. This could be achieved by association between Corto and CycG since both proteins bind the regulatory element iab-7 PRE and the promoter of the Abd-B gene. Conclusions/Significance Our results suggest that CycG could regulate the activity of Corto at chromatin and thus be involved in changing Corto from an Enhancer of TrxG into an Enhancer of PcG.
Spinal Cord Stimulation Reduces Mechanical Hyperalgesia and Glial Cell Activation in Animals with Neuropathic Pain

BACKGROUND:Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is commonly used for neuropathic pain; the optimal variables and mechanisms of action are unclear. We tested whether modulation of SCS variables improved analgesia in animals with neuropathic pain by comparing 6-hour vs 30-minute duration and 50%, 75%, or 90% motor threshold (MT) intensity (amplitude). Furthermore, we examined whether maximally effective SCS reduced glial activation in the spinal cord in neuropathic animals. METHODS:Sprague-Dawley rats received the spared nerve injury model and were implanted with an epidural SCS lead. Animals were tested for mechanical withdrawal threshold of the paw before and 2 weeks after spared nerve injury, before and after SCS daily for 4 days, and 1, 4, and 9 days after SCS. Spinal cords were examined for the effects of SCS on glial cell activation. RESULTS:The mechanical withdrawal threshold decreased, and glial immunoreactivity increased 2 weeks after spared nerve injury. For duration, 6-hour SCS significantly increased the mechanical withdrawal threshold when compared with 30-minute SCS or sham SCS; 30-minute SCS was greater than sham SCS. For intensity (amplitude), 90% MT SCS significantly increased the withdrawal threshold when compared with 75% MT SCS, 50% MT SCS, and sham SCS. Both 4 and 60 Hz SCS decreased glial activation (GFAP, MCP-1, and OX-42) in the spinal cord dorsal horn when compared with sham. CONCLUSIONS:Six-hour duration SCS with 90% MT showed the largest increase in mechanical withdrawal threshold, suggesting that the variables of stimulation are important for clinical effectiveness. One potential mechanism for SCS may be to reduce glial activation at the level of the spinal cord.
Hyperglycemia Induces a Dynamic Cooperativity of Histone Methylase and Demethylase Enzymes Associated With Gene-Activating Epigenetic Marks That Coexist on the Lysine Tail

OBJECTIVE Results from the Diabetes Control Complications Trial (DCCT) and the subsequent Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC) Study and more recently from the U.K. Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) have revealed that the deleterious end-organ effects that occurred in both conventional and more aggressively treated subjects continued to operate >5 years after the patients had returned to usual glycemic control and is interpreted as a legacy of past glycemia known as “hyperglycemic memory. ” We have hypothesized that transient hyperglycemia mediates persistent gene-activating events attributed to changes in epigenetic information. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Models of transient hyperglycemia were used to link NFκB-p65 gene expression with H3K4 and H3K9 modifications mediated by the histone methyltransferases (Set7 and SuV39h1) and the lysine-specific demethylase (LSD1) by the immunopurification of soluble NFκB-p65 chromatin. RESULTS The sustained upregulation of the NFκB-p65 gene as a result of ambient or prior hyperglycemia was associated with increased H3K4m1 but not H3K4m2 or H3K4m3. Furthermore, glucose was shown to have other epigenetic effects, including the suppression of H3K9m2 and H3K9m3 methylation on the p65 promoter. Finally, there was increased recruitment of the recently identified histone demethylase LSD1 to the p65 promoter as a result of prior hyperglycemia. CONCLUSIONS These studies indicate that the active transcriptional state of the NFκB-p65 gene is linked with persisting epigenetic marks such as enhanced H3K4 and reduced H3K9 methylation, which appear to occur as a result of effects of the methyl-writing and methyl-erasing histone enzymes.
Magnetomechanically induced long period fiber gratings

In this work, we report a simple, flexible method to create long period fiber gratings mechanically by controlling the repulsion/attraction force between two magnets that pressing a plate with a periodic array of small glass cylinders to a short length of optical fiber. Via the photoelastic effect, the pressure points induce the required periodic refractive index modulation to create the LPFG. We found that the induced device exhibits spectral characteristics similar to those of other types of LPFG. As the optical properties of LPFGs are directly related to the nature of the applied perturbations, we show, to our knowledge for the frrst time, how is the evolution of birefringence effects in mechanically induced LPFGs.
Blind speech extraction for Non-Audible Murmur speech with speaker's movement noise

In this paper, we address an improved method of noise reduction used in multichannel Non-Audible Murmur (NAM) based on blind source separation. Recently, speech processing with NAM has been proposed for applying versatile speech interface into quiet environments where we hesitate to utter. NAM is a very soft whispered voice signal detected with the NAM microphone, which is one of the body-conductive microphone. The detected NAM signal always suffers from nonstationary noise caused by speaker's movement because it changes the setting condition of the NAM microphone. In order to reduce the noise signal, blind noise reduction using stereo NAM signals detected with two NAM microphones has been proposed by some of the authors. In this paper, we aim to achieve further improvement in the noise reduction ability by changing the noise estimation and postprocessing algorithms to enhance the target NAM signal. In addition, we evaluate the application of recording the NAM signals with various types of microphones.