Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New Thinking on Flame Retardants

No one wants their bed, couch, chair, computer, or TV to catch on fire. “If an ordinary upholstered chair in your home gets ignited, it can essentially take your whole house down,” says Richard Gann, a senior research scientist at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Building and Fire Research Laboratory. The most flammable part of a mattress or couch is its plastic polyurethane foam cushioning, he explains. Once a fire gets through a chair or mattress’s fabric covering and into this cushioning, it can start a catastrophic reaction that quickly leads to “flashover,” in which nearly everything combustible inside a room ignites simultaneously. Until very recently, brominated flame retardants, especially polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), were one of the main materials used to reduce the speed with which the plastic components of consumer goods including beds, couches, chairs, and electronics could be consumed by fire. However, growing evidence shows that PBDE compounds are escaping from the products they protect and making their way into the products’ users. Moreover, the chemicals may disrupt human thyroid hormone functioning and cause other health effects, prompting many nations to ban or suspend their use in new consumer goods. [For more information on the health effects of PBDEs, see “Unwelcome Guest: PBDEs in Indoor Dust, p. A202 this issue. ] Although bromine- and chlorine-containing flame retardants are still used in some products, the need for new alternatives is being driven by a confluence of policy, standards, and pressure from environmental groups. Europe banned the use of two formulations, PBDE pentaBDE and octaBDE, in 2004, the same year they were withdrawn from the North American market. A third compound, decaBDE, was banned 1 April 2008 by the European Court of Justice. Stateside, Maine has banned the use of decaBDE, the only PBDE still on the market in North America, in mattresses and residential upholstered furniture produced and sold in that state, and will extend the ban to electronics in 2010. Washington prohibits the use of decaBDE in mattresses and sets a process for a future ban in furniture and electronics if the state can identify a safer and feasible alternative that meets fire safety standards. Asian countries and other U.S. states have similar legislation in the works. “Instead of adding new fire retardant chemicals that ultimately may be shown to cause health problems, we should be asking whether we need to use these chemicals or if there are other ways to achieve equivalent fire safety,” contends Arlene Blum, a biophysical chemist and visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. “So many of the chemicals we have banned in the past were flame retardants—think about asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated biphenyls, tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate, PBDEs—[and] they all ended up in the environment and in people,” she points out. “We need to think carefully about adding these sorts of chemicals to consumer products before there is adequate health information. ”
Modulation of conventional TV signals in all-digital CATV network head ends

In this paper, a new digital intermediate frequency modulator for conventional TV signals using digital signal processing is presented. A composite colour video signal and two associated audio signals are converted into a digital composite TV signal with spectrum at intermediate frequency. The modulator is designed for the high quality requirements that exist in professional equipment for CATV head ends. The architecture of the digital modulator shown is optimized for an implementation with ASICs. The signal processing with reduced complexity is described in detail, the structures and the design of the filters are illustrated and the simulated results are presented.
Electronic transport through a graphene-based ferromagnetic/normal/ferromagnetic junction

Electronic transport in a graphene-based ferromagnetic/normal/ferromagnetic junction is investigated by means of the Landauer–Büttiker formalism and the nonequilibrium Green function technique. For the zigzag edge case, the results show that the conductance is always larger than e2/h for the parallel configuration of lead magnetizations, but for the antiparallel configuration the conductance becomes zero because of the band-selective rule. Therefore, a magnetoresistance (MR) plateau emerges with the value 100% when the Fermi energy is located around the Dirac point. In addition, choosing narrower graphene ribbons can yield wider 100% MR plateaus and the length change of the central graphene region does not affect the 100% MR plateaus. Although the disorder will reduce the MR plateau, the plateau value can still be kept about 50% even in a large disorder strength case. In addition, when the magnetizations of the left and right leads have a relative angle, the conductance changes as a cosine function of the angle. What is more, for the armchair edge case, the MR is usually small. So, it is more favorable to fabricate a graphene-based spin valve device by using a zigzag edge graphene ribbon.
A 1.3µW 0.0075mm2 neural amplifier and capacitor-integrated electrodes for high density neural implant recording

A key issue in the design of biomedical implants is the design of low-power area-efficient circuits that allow for high-density neural recording. This paper presents an ultra low-power (<;1.4μW), area efficient low-noise neural amplifier that utilizes current-feedback miller-compensation technique and occupies ~ 0.0075mm2 silicon area. Integrating the large input capacitor within the electrodes saves valuable silicon area. The amplified signal is digitized by a 10-bit sigma-delta ADC that is based on an area-efficient self-biased amplifier. The ADC consumes only 4. 8μW from a 1.2V supply, when sampled with a 1.6MHz, and occupies 0.03mm2 chip area. The chip was fabricated in 0. 13μm CMOS.
Effectiveness of 99mTc-tetrofosmin for assessment of heart functions in micropigs

This study examined the suitability of a nuclear imaging technique using 99mTc-tetrofosmin as an agent to assess the heart functions of healthy micropigs. The mean age of the pigs was 360 days (male), and the mean body weight was 35.3 kg ranging from 34.5-36 kg. There were no significant perfusion defects in any of the reconstructed images. Gated single-photon emission computed tomography imaging can be used to calculate the ventricular volume and ejection fraction (EF). In this case, an EF of 79% was calculated from the ventricular volume of the end-systolic image (10 ml) subtracted from that of the end-diastolic volume (49 ml). A perfusion defect (particularly the apex, lateral wall) is unlikely because of the presence of a preserved wall motion in a segment with a defect. It is concluded that quantitative cardiac scintigraphy, using 99mTc-tetrofosmin is an adequate technique for estimating the heart functions of healthy micropigs.
Public Philosophy of Technology

Philosophers of technology are not playing the public role that our own theoretical perspectives motivate us to take. A great variety of theories and perspectives within philosophy of technology, including those of Marcuse, Feenberg, Borgmann, Ihde, Michelfelder, Bush, Winner, Latour, and Verbeek, either support or directly call for various sorts of intervention—a call that we have failed to heed adequately. Barriers to such intervention are discussed, and three proposals for reform are advanced: (1) post-publication peer-reviewed reprinting of public philosophy, (2) increased emphasis on true open access publication, and (3) increased efforts to publicize and adapt traditional academic research.
Bioartificial polymeric materials based on polysaccharides

Bioartificial polymeric materials, based on blends of polysaccharides with synthetic polymers such as poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), were prepared as films or hydrogels. The physico-chemical, mechanical, and biological properties of these materials were investigated by different techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and in vitro release tests, with the aim of evaluating the miscibility of the polymer blends and to establish their potential applications. The results indicate that while dextran is perfectly miscible with PAA, dextran/PVA, chitosan/PVA, starch/PVA, and gellan/PVAblends behave mainly as two-phase systems, although interactions can occur between the components. Cross-linked starch/PVAfilms could be employed as dialysis membranes: they showed transport properties comparable to, and in some cases better than, those of currently used commercial membranes. Hydrogels based on dextran/PVA and chitosan/PVA blends could find applications as delivery systems. They appeared able to release physiological amounts of human growth hormone, offering the possibility to modulate the release of the drug by varying the content of the biological component.
O (logn) algorithm for forward kinematics under asynchronous sensory input

This paper presents a new algorithm for forward kinematics, called Asynchronous Forward Kinematics (AFK). The algorithm has the complexity of O(log n) for updating one joint angle, and O(logn) for obtaining a homogeneous transformation matrix between links. AFK enables computation for efficient forward kinematics under asynchronous sensory data. Moreover, AFK peovides localise computational resources at sensitive joints to the position of the endpoint (e.g. a fingertip), like a root joint. We provide comparative results including computation time, evaluating AFK against the conventional forward kinematics (CFK). The results showed that the computation time is well adequate for real-time computation. Computation time for 100 links takes less than 20 us for 1 query. Moreover, computation time with over 50000 links takes less than 35 us for 1 query.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Students: A Qualitative Study of the Perceived Effects of Bullying in Schools

Bullying research frequently focuses on incidence and prevalence of bullying in schools, often failing to provide detailed accounts of the experiences and perceived impact of harassment and abuse (Poteat et al., 2009) on victimized lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) students. Further, these studies tend to have small samples of racial and ethnic participants and they fail to address victimization in individuals with multiple oppressed identities (D'Augelli et al., 2002; Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network [GLSEN], 2009). Utilizing a consensual qualitative research (CQR) design, the purpose of this study was to examine the victimization experiences and coping mechanisms utilized by LGBTQ individuals, particularly persons of color, in K-12 school settings. Data collection consisted of fourteen LGBTQ individuals from Southern Virginia participating in 30 minute interviews about their harassment experiences in school. Participants ranged in age from 17-21 years old and 11 (79%) of the 14 study participants identified themselves as racial minorities. Results indicated that participant conceptualizations of their bullying experiences and responses may have been influenced by a number of confounding factors and/or variables (Mishna, Newman, Daley, & Soloman, 2009) such as sexual identity development, types of bullying, and locations of bullying. When compared to recent LGBTQ literature it would appear that individuals with multiple oppressed identities experienced bullying and harassment in much the same way as individuals without multiple oppressed identities.
The Particulate Methane Monooxygenase from Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath) Is a Novel Copper-containing Three-subunit Enzyme

The particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO) is known to be very difficult to study mainly due to its unusual activity instability in vitro. By cultivatingMethylococcus capsulatus (Bath) under methane stress conditions and high copper levels in the growth medium, membranes highly enriched in the pMMO with exceptionally stable activity can be isolated from these cells. Purified and active pMMO can be subsequently obtained from these membrane preparations using protocols in which an excess of reductants and anaerobic conditions were maintained during membrane solubilization by dodecyl β-d-maltoside and purification by chromatography. The pMMO was found to be the major constituent in these membranes, constituting 60–80% of total membrane proteins. The dominant species of the pMMO was found to consist of three subunits, α, β, and γ, with an apparent molecular mass of 45, 26, and 23 kDa, respectively. A second species of the pMMO, a proteolytically processed version of the enzyme, was found to be composed of three subunits, α′, β, and γ, with an apparent molecular mass of 35, 26, and 23 kDa, respectively. The α and α′ subunits from these two forms of the pMMO contain identical N-terminal sequences. The γ subunit, however, exhibits variation in its N-terminal sequence. The pMMO is a copper-containing protein only and shows a requirement for Cu(I) ions. Approximately 12–15 Cu ions per 94-kDa monomeric unit were observed. The pMMO is sensitive to dioxygen tension. On the basis of dioxygen sensitivity, three kinetically distinct forms of the enzyme can be distinguished. A slow but air-stable form, which is converted into a “pulsed” state upon direct exposure to atmospheric oxygen pressure, is considered as type I pMMO. This form was the subject of our pMMO isolation effort. Other forms (types II and III) are deactivated to various extents upon exposure to atmospheric dioxygen pressure. Under inactivating conditions, these unstable forms release protons to the buffer (∼10 H+/94-kDa monomeric unit) and eventually become completely inactive.
seqMINER: an integrated ChIP-seq data interpretation platform

In a single experiment, chromatin immunoprecipitation combined with high throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) provides genome-wide information about a given covalent histone modification or transcription factor occupancy. However, time efficient bioinformatics resources for extracting biological meaning out of these gigabyte-scale datasets are often a limiting factor for data interpretation by biologists. We created an integrated portable ChIP-seq data interpretation platform called seqMINER, with optimized performances for efficient handling of multiple genome-wide datasets. seqMINER allows comparison and integration of multiple ChIP-seq datasets and extraction of qualitative as well as quantitative information. seqMINER can handle the biological complexity of most experimental situations and proposes methods to the user for data classification according to the analysed features. In addition, through multiple graphical representations, seqMINER allows visualization and modelling of general as well as specific patterns in a given dataset. To demonstrate the efficiency of seqMINER, we have carried out a comprehensive analysis of genome-wide chromatin modification data in mouse embryonic stem cells to understand the global epigenetic landscape and its change through cellular differentiation.
IL-17 F-induced IL-11 release in bronchial epithelial cells via MSK 1-CREB pathway

Mio Kawaguchi,* Junichi Fujita,* Fumio Kokubu, Shau-Ku Huang, Tetsuya Homma, Satoshi Matsukura, Mitsuru Adachi, and Nobuyuki Hizawa Department of Respiratory Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki; Department of Respiratory Medicine, Showa University Fujigaoka Hospital, Yokohama, Japan; Johns Hopkins University, Asthma and Allergy Center, Baltimore, Maryland; and Department of Respiratory and Allergy Medicine, Showa University, Tokyo, Japan
Alpine Areas in the Colorado front Range as Monitors of Climate Change and Ecosystem Response*

The presence of a seasonal snowpack in alpine environments can amplify climate signals. A conceptual model is developed for the response of alpine ecosystems in temperate, midlatitude areas to changes in energy, chemicals, and water, based on a case study from Green Lakes Valley–Niwot Ridge, a headwater catchment in the Colorado Front Range. A linear regression shows the increase in annual precipitation of about 300 millimeters from 1951 to 1996 to be significant. Most of the precipitation increase has occurred since 1967. The annual deposition of inorganic nitrogen in wetfall at the Niwot Ridge National Atmospheric Deposition Program site roughly doubled between 1985–1988 and 1989–1992. Storage and release of strong acid anions, such as those from the seasonal snowpack in an ionic pulse, have resulted in episodic acidification of surface waters. These biochemical changes alter the quantity and quality of organic matter in high‐elevation catchments of the Rocky Mountains. Affecting the bottom of the food chain, the increase in nitrogen deposition may be partly responsible for the current decline of bighorn sheep in the Rocky Mountains.
Wealth Selection in a Financial Market with Heterogeneous Agents ∗

We study the co-evolution of asset prices and agents’ wealth in a financial market populated by an arbitrary number of heterogeneous, boundedly rational investors. We model assets’ demand to be proportional to agents’ wealth, so that wealth dynamics can be used as a selection device. For a general class of investment behaviors, we are able to characterize the long run market outcome, i.e. the steady-state equilibrium values of asset return, and agents’ survival. Our investigation illustrates that market forces pose certain limits on the outcome of agents’ interactions even within the “wilderness of bounded rationality”. As an application we show that our analysis provides a rigorous explanation for the results of the simulation model introduced in Levy, Levy, and Solomon (1994). JEL codes: G12, D84, C62.
Perceptions of High-risk Sex Among Men and Women Attending an STI Clinic in Cape Town, South Africa

The widespread occurrence of sexually transmitted infections (STI's) among young adults in South Africa suggests that there is a need to increase safe sex practices among those who are sexually active. Given the high rate of HIV infection in the country, individuals who have contracted an STI may be at greatest risk of HIV. The present study sought to establish the perceptions of men and women attending an STI clinic with regard to high-risk sex. A convenience sample of 21 young men and women seeking treatment at a clinic for STIs in Cape Town, was recruited to serve as research participants. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted to ascertain perceptions of high-risk sexual behaviour. The results showed that participants were aware that sex without a condom, inconsistent condom use, casual sex and multiple sex partners constituted high-risk behavior. However, despite this knowledge, participants reported low condom use which was attributed to alcohol intoxication, transactional sex, and coercion by sex partners. The implications of these findings for effective interventions are discussed.
Interactive graph matching and visual comparison of graphs and clustered graphs

We introduce interactive graph matching, a process that conciliates visualization, interaction and optimization approaches to address the graph matching and graph comparison problems as a whole. Interactive graph matching is based on a multi-layered interaction model and on a visual reification of graph matching functions. We present three case studies and a system named Donatien to demonstrate the interactive graph matching approach. The three case studies involve different datasets a) subgraphs of a lexical network, b) graph of keywords extracted from the InfoVis contest benchmark, and c) clustered graphs computed from different clustering algorithms for comparison purposes.
Wide-area measurement based dynamic stochastic optimal power flow control for smart grids with high variability and uncertainty

Summary form only given. To achieve a high penetration level of intermittent renewable energy, the operation and control of power systems need to account for the associated high variability and uncertainty. Power system stability and security need to be ensured dynamically as the system operating condition continuously changes. A wide-area measurement based dynamic stochastic optimal power flow (DSOPF) control algorithm using the adaptive critic designs (ACDs) is presented in this paper. The proposed DSOPF control replaces the traditional AGC and secondary voltage control, and provides a coordinated AC power flow control solution to the smart grid operation in an environment with high short-term uncertainty and variability. The ACD technique, specifically the dual heuristic dynamic programming (DHP), is used to provide nonlinear optimal control, where the control objective is explicitly formulated to incorporate power system economy, stability and security considerations. The proposed DSOPF controller dynamically drives the power system to its optimal operating point by continuously adjusting the steady-state set points sent by the traditional OPF algorithm. A 12-bus test power system is used to demonstrate the development and effectiveness of the proposed DSOPF controller.
Lignification of Sheepgrass Internodes at Different Developmental Stages and Associated Alteration of Cell Wall Saccharification Efficiency

Sheepgrass (Leymus chinensis) is a high-quality cool-season forage crop used as pasture and hay for livestock feeds. The presence of lignin in cell walls, however, impairs forage digestibility of such lignocellulosic feedstock. Here, the structural characterization and cell wall composition of sheepgrass internodes were studied, and a progressive increase in cell wall lignification was observed with internode maturation. Lignin composition analysis further revealed a gradual accumulation of guaiacyl and syringyl lignin units during internode development. Consistently, the transcript abundance of lignin-related genes was upregulated in mature internodes, suggesting their potential roles in lignin biosynthesis. Furthermore, the effects of cell wall composition and lignification extent on biomass saccharification efficiency were examined in sheepgrass. The results showed that lignin content, guaiacyl and syringyl lignin unit levels inversely correlated with cell wall digestibility, indicating that lignin is a crucial obstacle for utilizing sheepgrass feedstock. The baseline information obtained in this work will facilitate establishment, grazing management, harvesting and feedstock utilization of sheepgrass in future.