Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Force generation by titin folding

Titin is a giant protein that provides elasticity to muscle. As the sarcomere is stretched, titin extends hierarchically according to the mechanics of its segments. Whether titin's globular domains unfold during this process and how such unfolded domains might contribute to muscle contractility are strongly debated. To explore the force‐dependent folding mechanisms, here we manipulated skeletal‐muscle titin molecules with high‐resolution optical tweezers. In force‐clamp mode, after quenching the force (<10 pN), extension fluctuated without resolvable discrete events. In position‐clamp experiments, the time‐dependent force trace contained rapid fluctuations and a gradual increase of average force, indicating that titin can develop force via dynamic transitions between its structural states en route to the native conformation. In 4 M urea, which destabilizes H‐bonds hence the consolidated native domain structure, the net force increase disappeared but the fluctuations persisted. Thus, whereas net force generation is caused by the ensemble folding of the elastically‐coupled domains, force fluctuations arise due to a dynamic equilibrium between unfolded and molten‐globule states. Monte–Carlo simulations incorporating a compact molten‐globule intermediate in the folding landscape recovered all features of our nanomechanics results. The ensemble molten‐globule dynamics delivers significant added contractility that may assist sarcomere mechanics, and it may reduce the dissipative energy loss associated with titin unfolding/refolding during muscle contraction/relaxation cycles.
A compact ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass filter using microstrip T-shaped stub

A compact ultra-wideband (UWB) Bandpass filter with 4.6–10.6 GHz suitable for an ultra-wideband (UWB) application is presented. The filter is developed by using microstrip T-shaped triple-mode resonator doublets. It consists of two parallel but oppositely T-shaped resonators, and has a significantly widened passband. An UWB filter is designed by substituting the T-shaped stub for the open-ended stub. A T-shaped stub is added to the coupling lines to create two strong reflection zeros in passband and two sharp transmission zeros at the band edge. The filter has a passband covering 4.6–10.6GHz, and exhibits sharp attenuations near its passband.
Phase Transformation Behavior and Stress Relief Cracking Susceptibility in Creep Resistant Steels

i Acknowledgements. v Vita. vi List of Tables.xi List of Figures.xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW . 5 2.1 Fossil Power Generation . 5 2.1. 1 Principles and efficiency . 5 2.1. 2 Water walls: design, construction / welding, assembly . 5 2.1. 3 Water walls: working conditions, sources of hydrogen during clean up, start up and operation . 8 2.2 Creep in Steels During High Temperature Service . 8 2.2.1 Definition . 8 2.2.2 Mechanisms . 10 2.3 Creep Resistant Steels . 11 2.3. 1 Design principles . 11 2.3. 2 Strengthening mechanisms and alloying . 12 2.3. 3 Grades of creep resistant steels, creep-strength enhanced ferritic (CSEF) steels 12
Prevalence of substance use among trauma patients treated in a Brazilian emergency room.

OBJECTIVE Although there is a considerable amount of data in the literature regarding the association between alcohol consumption and injuries treated in emergency rooms, little is known about the relationship between such injury and the use of other substances. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of substance use in patients admitted to the emergency room for non-fatal injuries. METHOD A prospective cross-sectional study assessing all patients admitted to the emergency room within 6 hours after a non-fatal injury was conducted over a three-month period. The following were used as measures of alcohol and drug use: a standardized World Health Organization questionnaire; a self-administered questionnaire related to drug consumption within the 24 hours preceding contact; the Drug Abuse Screening Test; urine screens for cannabis, cocaine and benzodiazepines; and determination of blood alcohol concentration. Descriptive analyses were performed and the confidence interval used was 95%. RESULTS A total of 353 patients were included. Cannabis and cocaine screens were conducted for 242 patients and benzodiazepine screens were conducted for 166. Blood alcohol concentrations reached the level of positivity in 11% (n = 39), and 10% (n = 33) presented some degree of intoxication. Among the 242 patients screened, 13.6% (n = 33) tested positive for cannabis, and 3.3% (n = 8) tested positive for cocaine, whereas 4.2% (n = 7) of the 166 patients screened tested positive for benzodiazepines. CONCLUSIONS Substance use was highly prevalent among these individuals. In this sample, the frequency for the use of cannabis (an illicit drug) was comparable to that of alcohol. More studies are needed in order to characterize such use among Brazilians and to develop proper approaches to such cases, with the aim of reducing substance use and its consequences.
Impact of substrate bias on GIDL for thin-BOX ETSOI devices

We present a detailed analysis of substrate bias (Vbb) impact on gate induced drain leakage (GIDL) for thin-BOX extremely thin silicon-on-insulator (ETSOI) with BOX thickness (TBOX) ranging from 10 to 50 nm and inversion layer thicknesses (TINV) ranging from 1.1 to 1.3 nm. The GIDL behavior for thin-BOX under various substrate biases (Vbb) and partially depleted SOI (PDSOI) devices with different body doping are compared.
Fast feature selection by analyzing class regions approximated by ellipsoids

In the previous work by Abe et al. (1998), the backward feature selection method based on class regions approximated by ellipsoids was developed. In this paper, we accelerate feature selection by the forward selection search, the symmetric Cholesky factorization, and deletion of duplicated calculations between consecutive factorizations. The feature selection for two data sets shows that our method is faster than and as robust as the previous method.
ANTAGONISTIC RESPONSES TO NATURAL AND SEXUAL SELECTION AND THE SEX‐SPECIFIC EVOLUTION OF CUTICULAR HYDROCARBONS IN DROSOPHILA SIMULANS

Natural and sexual selection are classically thought to oppose one another, and although there is evidence for this, direct experimental demonstrations of this antagonism are largely lacking. Here, we assessed the effects of sexual and natural selection on the evolution of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), a character subject to both modes of selection, in Drosophila simulans. Natural selection and sexual selection were manipulated in a fully factorial design, and after 27 generations of experimental evolution, the responses of male and female CHCs were assessed. The effects of natural and sexual selection differed greatly across the sexes. The responses of female CHCs were generally small, but CHCs evolved predominantly in the direction of natural selection. For males, profiles evolved via sexual and natural selection, as well as through the interaction between the two, with some male CHC components only evolving in the direction of natural selection when sexual selection was relaxed. These results indicate sex‐specific responses to selection, and that sexual and natural selection act antagonistically for at least some combinations of CHCs.
Effects of a Combined Inpatient-Outpatient Treatment of Obese Children and Adolescents

Background: The program The combined DAK therapy for obesity in children and adolescents’ funded and conducted by the Deutsche Angestellten-Krankenkasse (DAK), a German health insurance company, commenced in 2003. The treatment program lasts for 1 year and comprises of 2 phases: an initial inpatient therapy for 6 weeks followed by a home-based outpatient treatment of the overweight children, adolescents, and their families for 10.5 months. The therapy complies with the guidelines of the German Working Group of Obesity in Childhood and Adolescence (AGA). Participants and Methods: In this study, 162 obese children and adolescents were compared with a control group of 75 obese subjects recruited from the waiting list for the program. The aim was to analyze whether the changes in weight, eating behavior, and physical fitness during the therapy period are a result of the therapy itself or whether they are attributable to external effects. Body weight, height, and physical fitness were assessed through direct measurements while behavior and quality of life were assessed using self-report questionnaires. The development of body weight was evaluated using the BMI-SDS which is a measure of how many standard deviations an individual BMI is above or below the age- and gender-specific mean. Results: Within the observation period the BMISDS decreased significantly by 0.36 ± 0.34 in the intervention group, whereas no changes of BMI-SDS were observed in the control group (0.04 ± 0.17). The study revealed significant, positive treatment effects in exploratory analyses with regard to weight loss, behavior changes, physical fitness, and development of quality of life as a result of the therapy. These effects were not seen in the control group. Conclusion: We conclude that these positive developments are a result of the treatment program.
On Risk and Plant-based Biopharmaceuticals

Research into plant-based expression of pharmaceutical proteins is proceeding at a blistering pace. Indeed, plants expressing pharmaceutical proteins are currently being grown in field environments throughout the USA. But how are these plants and proteins being assessed for environmental risk and how are they being regulated? Here, we examine the applicability of the risk assessment paradigm for assessing human and ecological risks from field-grown transgenic plants that express pharmaceutical proteins. Research with transgenic plants continues to offer the promise of large-scale production of safe, pure and highly efficacious therapeutic proteins. These proteins are essential for the production of a wide range of biopharmaceu-ticals, including monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), enzymes, blood proteins and new types of subunit vaccines for preventing infectious diseases. Biopharmaceuticals, in particular MAbs, are one of the fastest growing classes of therapeutics, with . 200 products in clinical evaluation and many more in preclinical development [1]. These products are being developed to treat life-threatening and chronic diseases including arthritis, cancer, infection, inflammation and cardiovascular diseases. There are currently 12 therapeutic MAbs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and these complex multi-subunit proteins are produced in mammalian cell culture facilities. Recent estimates indicate that seven plant-derived antibodies or antibody derivatives have reached advanced stages of product development [2]. Analysts also predict that. 70 therapeutic MAbs could be on the market by 2008, requiring production of . 10 metric tons of MAbs annually (L. Dry; www.bio.org/pmp/index.asp). If these estimates are accurate, the result could be an unprecedented demand for new manufacturing capacity for MAbs. Given a projected shortage in manufacturing capacity, plant-based biopharmaceuticals represent a cost-effective alternative to traditional cell-culture production for meeting growing demands for these therapeutic proteins. Furthermore, because of the current advanced state of the technology, plant biotechnology might provide an efficient, high capacity alternative to traditional cell-culture production. The use of plants to produce proteins with potential human and animal pharmaceutical value has been ongoing for more than 13 years [2,3] and the plant species employed and proteins produced have been diverse. Some of the proteins produced in plants include Streptococcus mutans surface protein antigen A, hepatitis B surface antigen, E. coli heat-labile enterotoxin, Norwalk virus capsid protein, human aprotinin, human collagen, a-inter-feron and rabies virus glycoprotein [2,3]. Plant species used for pharmaceutical protein production include tobacco, carrot, tomato, maize, potato, alfalfa, soybean and rice [4]. Much of the research activity associated with plant-based biopharmaceuticals …
Convergence of density and hybrid functional defect calculations for compound semiconductors

Recent revisions of defect formation energy calculations based on bandgap corrected hybrid functionals have raised concerns about the validity of earlier results based on standard density functionals and about the reliability of the theoretical prediction of electrical properties in semiconductor materials in general. We show here that a close agreement between the two types of functionals can be achieved by determining appropriate values for the electronic and atomic reference energies, thereby mitigating uncertainties associated with the choice of the underlying functional. © 2013 American Physical Society.
Hot corrosion behaviour of HVOF-sprayed 93(WC-Cr3C2)-7Ni and 83WC-17Co coatings on boiler tube steel in coal fired boiler

Abstract The present work was an attempt to find the hot corrosion behaviour of high velocity oxy-fuel-sprayed 93(WC-Cr3C2)-7Ni and 83WC-17Co coatings on boiler steel alloys, ASME SA213-T22 and ASME SA213-T91 in coal fired boiler environment in superheater zone. The coated and uncoated specimens were exposed to actual boiler environment for 10 cycles. Each cycle consisted of 100 h heating followed by 1 h cooling at ambient conditions. The thermogravimetric technique was used to establish the kinetics of corrosion. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy techniques were used to analyse corrosion products. The hot corrosion resistance of 93(WC-Cr3C2)-7Ni-coated ASME SA213-T91 specimens was better among all coated specimens.
A Topological Search Algorithm for ATPG

The automatic generation of tests for combinational digital circuits is examined from the standpoint of a guided search through a search space. The limitations of this process, namely the size of the search space and the overall strategy, are identified and methods are presented to reduce the size of the search space as well as produce a more optimal ordering of node assignments. A new algorithm is proposed that uses the smaller search space and the improved ordering for node assignments based on a topological analysis of the circuit. Results are presented indicating that this new algorithm, termed TOPological Search (TOPS), is faster than existing algorithms and also rapidly identifies many redundant faults without search.
Implementation of an Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay for the Quantification of Allergenic Egg Residues in Red Wines Using Commercially Available Antibodies

Abstract Since the early 2000s, labeling of potentially allergenic food components to protect people who suffer from food allergies is compulsory in numerous industrialized countries. In Europe, milk and egg components used during the winemaking process must be indicated on the label since July 1, 2012. Several ELISA procedures have been developed to detect allergenic residues in wines. However, the complexity of the wine matrix can inhibit the immunoenzymatic reaction. The aim of this study was to implement an ELISA assay for the detection of ovalbumin in red wines using commercially available antibodies. The specificity of the acquired antibodies and the absence of cross reactivity were assessed by immunoblotting and ELISA. An ELISA assay with a LOD of 14.2 μg/L and a LOQ of 56.4 μg/L of ovalbumin in aqueous solution was obtained. Differences in ELISA signals were observed when analyzing various fining agents, although reproducible conformation of the antigen could be reached for the comparison of ovalbumin and Ovicolle. The differences between samples in terms of pH could be leveled but the inhibition of the ELISA signal, positively correlated to the tannin content of the wines, could not be suppressed. Thus, standard curves of ovalbumin in several wines were obtained by relative quantification. The control steps and the difficulties encountered presented in this study should be considered by anybody working toward the development of ELISA assays for the detection of allergenic residues in complex food matrices.
Preparation and characterization of the nanocomposites from chemically modified nanocellulose and poly(lactic acid)

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are renewable and sustainable filler for polymeric nanocomposites. However, their high hydrophilicity limits their use with hydrophobic polymer for composite materials. In this study, freeze-dried CNCs were modified by transesterification with canola oil fatty acid methyl ester to reduce the hydrophilicity. The transesterified CNCs (CNCFE) were compounded with PLA into nanocomposites. CNCFE with long-chain hydrocarbons plays a role as plasticizer. Increasing CNCFE loadings resulted in clear plasticizing effects. Lower Tg and Tm were achieved for CNCFE-based nanocomposites. Plasticizing nanocomposite melt with CNCFE can mitigate the degradation of CNCs during thermal processing. The elongation at break of nanocomposites containing 5% CNCFE was increased. Dynamic rheological study showed the highest elastic and viscous moduli (G′ and G′′) and complex viscosity (G*) of nanocomposites with addition of 2% CNCFE. By tailoring the loadings of the transesterified CNCs, tunable structure and properties of nanocomposites can be obtained.
Surface temperature estimation of li-ion battery via thermal impulse response technique

This paper focuses on the prediction of temperature profiles on the surface of Lithium-ion cells. In particular, the paper proposes the adoption of the impulse response technique to predict cell surface temperatures consequent to generic discharge conditions applied to the targeted cell. The method is fed by data obtained by dedicated experiments to be performed on the targeted cell. In order to feed the proposed method, these experiments aim at obtaining cell surface temperature profiles consequent to short-time current discharge impulses. A set of dedicated validations is finally included in the paper in order to verify the validity of the proposed method.
State observers for discrete-time LPV systems: an interpolation based approach

Investigates a state observation design problem for discrete time linear parameter varying (LPV) systems. The main contribution of the paper consists in providing an interpolation scheme to build the LPV observer. We show that an appropriate choice of the interpolation functions allows us to use available quadratic stability conditions to design an LPV observer.
Near-capacity MIMO Subspace Detection

This paper presents a low complexity detection algorithm for Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems. The novel subspace approach involves QR Decomposition (QRD) or Cholesky decomposition to triangularize the effective channel matrix so that several (possibly overlapping) groups of data streams can be detected separately. Link layer simulations show that the ergodic MIMO capacity can be closely approached by exploiting an Overlapped Subspace Detection (OSD) strategy. The OSD algorithm offers a scalable performance/complexity trade-off between Zero-Forcing (ZF) and Maximum a posteriori Probability (APP) detection. The proposed algorithm can be straightforwardly applied to large MIMO systems, as prevalent with recent advances in the field such as network MIMO and Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) transmission and reception.
Crowds, bluetooth, and rock'n'roll: understanding music festival participant behavior

In this paper we present a study sensing and analyzing an offline social network of participants at a large-scale music festival attended by 130,000+ participants, and featuring eight days of musical program on 6 stages. Spatio-temporal traces of participant mobility and interactions were collected from 33 Bluetooth scanners placed in strategic locations at the festival area to discover Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones carried by the participants. We employed an Infinite Relational Model (IRM) in order to analyze the collected data and to recover the structure of the network related to participants' music preferences. The obtained structure in the form of clusters of concerts and participants is then interpreted using meta-information about music genres, band origins, stages, and dates of the performances. We show that the concerts' clusters can be described by one or more of the meta-features, effectively revealing preferences of participants. Finally, we discuss the possibility of employing the described method and techniques for creating user-oriented applications and extending the sensing capabilities during large-scale events by introducing user involvement.
Biofilm Formation of Foodborne Pathogens and their Control in Food Processing Facilities

Microorganism can form biofilm to adapt various hard-to-live conditions for long-term survival. Foodborne pathogens can seed in the biofilm to escape the regular sanitation practice, especially in floor drains. Food processing facilities generally use chlorine-based, QACs-based, or phenolic-based sanitizers in their sanitation practice. The advantage of these sanitizers is cheap and effective and the disadvantage is its efficacy can be reduced by a lot of factors and easy to produce resistance. New novel bactericide as an alternative is needed when efficacy of these traditional sanitizers is substantially reduced. For control of Listeria monocytogenes in floor drain contamination, especially for ready-to-eat processing plant the procedure of biocontrol is needed because floor drain is too deep to reach. The product of biocontrol contains beneficial bacteria and these beneficial bacteria can live in the biofilm at harsh environment and these beneficial bacteria consistently produces various bacteriocins to kill L. monocytogenes and ensures floor drain without the contamination of L. monocytogenes for long-term.
Green Synthesis and Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles of Leaf Extracts of Priva cordifolia (L. F.) Druce

A basic need in the field of nanotechnology is the development of reliable and eco-friendly techniques for synthesis of metal nanoparticles. To accomplish this need the plant system has emerged as an efficient living factory for synthesis of metal nanoparticles. The synthesis of metal nanoparticles using plants is non-toxic, fast, takes place at ambient temperature and low cost. A variety of plants and plant organs (leaf, stem, root and bark) and plant enzymes have shown the successful synthesis of metal nanoparticles. In the present investigation AgNO 3 mediated nanoparticles were synthesized using the leaf extracts of Priva cordifolia (L. F.) Druce. belonging to the family Verbenaceae and it was characterized by UV-VIS spectrum, X-Ray Diffraction studies, EDX and SEM analysis. Color change, SEM, EDX and XRD analysis confirmed the stability of synthesized AgNPs. The antimicrobial potential and wide applications of AgNPs in different fields could be analyzed in future.
Effect of pulsed magnetic treatment on the corrosion of titanium

ABSTRACT Results of corrosion tests of titanium in the initial state and after treatment using pulsed magnetic field are presented. It is shown that samples after treatment have better corrosion resistance due to the formation of denser and finer corrosion products with better adhesion to the substrate. Samples after treatment have more homogeneous microstructure due to a substantial increase of dislocations which are uniformly distributed. Mechanisms of dislocation multiplication and a model explaining the effect of the treatment on the corrosion are discussed. This paper is part of a themed issue on Materials in External Fields.