Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Nb Addition on the Corrosion Behavior of Porous TiAl Based Alloys in Aqueous Environments

The corrosion behavior of porous Nb-containing TiAl based alloys in HCl, NaOH and NH3H2O aqueous solutions with various concentrations has been studied simultaneously at room temperature. The results indicate that the porous alloys have good acidic resistance which is probably based on the combined work of Ti-Ti metallic bond and covalent bond. And pitting corrosion is the main corrosion behavior of Nb-free TiAl alloys during the first 40 hours, while intergranular corrosion is the main corrosion behavior later. Nb-containing alloys have better acid corrosion resistance due to inhibiting intergranular corrosion by Nb element. In addition, the porous TiAl based alloys are much more resistant to corrosion in alkaline solutions than in acidic solutions, owing to the different oxide films formed in alkalis solutions.
Hard-output chase detectors for large MIMO: BER performance and complexity analysis

In this paper, a family of cost-efficient hard-output detection algorithms for large multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems is proposed. The schemes employ punctured QR decomposition (QRD) instead of regular QRD to reduce complexity. The bit error rate performance is studied analytically, where it is shown that channel matrix puncturing does not affect the diversity gain of the detectors. Through empirical simulations, the proposed schemes are shown to achieve significant reductions in computational complexity with graceful performance degradation. In particular, at an SNR cost of 4dB, 77% of complex multiplications in nulling and cancellation are saved in 16 × 16 MIMO, while 30% of multiplications are saved at a 2dB cost in 4×4 MIMO. The savings can reach 94% in 64×64 MIMO.
Control of the nanostructure and microtribology of magnetron sputtered surfaces

The technological importance of hard thin films is well established. There is growing recognition that nanometre-scale surface structures can be controlled to the benefit of function. In-process structuring brings these ideas together. This study explores how the morphology, especially the surface topography, and microtribological behaviour of Cr-N films can be controlled during unbalanced magnetron (UBM) sputtering. Experiments varying the sputter power, bias voltage, temperature, total pressure and Ar/N2 ratio during UBM sputtering generated different compositions, crystallite orientations and microstructures, and six associated topography types: pyramidal (type P), grain-like (G), crater-like (CR), ribbon-like (R), conical (C) and hillock-like (H). A new empirical zone model consistently relates these topography types to process parameters. The feature dimensions are also controlled by the deposition parameters. The films have closely reproducible topographical and mechanical properties. The microtribological behaviour for three topography types (P, C and CR) is studied under different conditions relevant to unlubricated contacts, lubricated contacts, and humid environments. Nanostructured surfaces show significantly lower friction than smooth ones, with actual reductions depending on the topography type. Friction strongly correlates with summit density (Ssd). Low friction (Ssd ~ 3 #/µm2) was measured on all type CR surfaces, but only by increasing the lateral dimensions of types P and C. Unlubricated friction is attributed principally to solid-solid adhesion, influenced by the density and curvature of summits. Wear is influenced by the density, shape and size of the surface features and by the mechanical properties of the film. Boundary lubrication reduced friction, with slight dependence on lubricant. Alongside the summits parameters, friction correlates with core fluid retention index. Applying hydrophobic and hydrophilic treatments shows that appropriate nanostructuring reduces the dependence of friction on humidity and sliding velocity, principally by controlling the summit density. In-process structuring is clearly very useful for creating nanostructures in order to enhance the microtribological behaviour of surfaces. Further investigations are recommended into friction optimization by nanostructuring.
Safety and Efficacy of Repeat Open-Label AbobotulinumtoxinA Treatment in Pediatric Cerebral Palsy

This was a prospective, repeat-treatment, open-label study (NCT01251380) of abobotulinumtoxinA for the management of lower limb spasticity in children who had completed a double-blind study. Children (2-17 years) received injections into the gastrocnemius-soleus complex, and other distal and proximal muscles as required (maximum total dose per injection cycle: 30 U/kg or 1000U). A total of 216 of the 241 double-blind patients entered the extension study and 207 received ≥1 open label injection into the gastrocnemius-soleus; 17-24% of patients also had injections into the hamstrings. The most frequent adverse events were related to common childhood infections and the most frequent treatment-related adverse event was injection site pain (n = 10). There was no evidence of a cumulative effect on adverse events. Sustained significant clinical improvements in muscle tone (Modified Ashworth Scale), spasticity (Tardieu Scale), overall clinical benefit (Physicians Global Assessment), and goal attainment (Goal Attainment Scale) were also observed across treatment cycles.
Planning Telehealth for Older Adults With Atrial Fibrillation in Rural Communities: Understanding Stakeholder Perspectives

Older adults with atrial fibrillation (AF) in rural communities have less access to cardiac specialty care. Telehealth offers a viable approach to provide cardiac care, yet little is known about patients’ and providers’ views on telehealth’s potential to support rural patients with AF. This qualitative descriptive study examines patient and health providers’ perspectives, an important first step in planning a telehealth initiative. Eight patients with AF, along with one partner from rural communities, were recruited through an urban-based AF clinic. Five providers were recruited through professional practice leads in the health region. Semistructured telephone interviews were conducted with both stakeholder groups. The overriding theme was variability in patient and provider receptiveness to telehealth. Receptiveness reflected differences in past experience with telehealth, in perceived adequacy of rural health services, and in perceived gaps in AF care. These are important considerations in planning effective and sustainable telehealth in rural communities.
DNA and RNA interference mechanisms by CRISPR-Cas surveillance complexes

The CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-Cas (CRISPR-associated) adaptive immune systems use small guide RNAs, the CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs), to mark foreign genetic material, e.g. viral nucleic acids, for degradation. Archaea and bacteria encode a large variety of Cas proteins that bind crRNA molecules and build active ribonucleoprotein surveillance complexes. The evolution of CRISPR-Cas systems has resulted in a diversification of cas genes and a classification of the systems into three types and additional subtypes characterized by distinct surveillance and interfering complexes. Recent crystallographic and biochemical advances have revealed detailed insights into the assembly and DNA/RNA targeting mechanisms of the various complexes. Here, we review our knowledge on the molecular mechanism involved in the DNA and RNA interference stages of type I (Cascade: CRISPR-associated complex for antiviral defense), type II (Cas9) and type III (Csm, Cmr) CRISPR-Cas systems. We further highlight recently reported structural and mechanistic themes shared among these systems.
Fertility-related knowledge and information-seeking behaviour among people of reproductive age: a qualitative study

Abstract Some potentially modifiable factors adversely affect fertility and pregnancy health. To inform a fertility health promotion programme, this study investigated fertility knowledge and information-seeking behaviour among people of reproductive age. This was a qualitative study involving six focus group discussions with women and men who intended to have children in the future and eight paired interviews with couples who were actively trying to conceive. Participants (n = 74) themselves generally claimed ‘low’ to ‘average’ levels of knowledge about fertility. Most of them overestimated women’s reproductive lifespan and had limited knowledge about the ‘fertile window’ of the menstrual cycle. The Internet was a common source of fertility-related information and social media was viewed as a potential effective avenue for dissemination of messages about fertility and how to protect it. Most participants agreed that primary health care providers, such as general practitioners (GPs), are well placed to provide information regarding fertility and pregnancy health. This study identified several gaps in knowledge among people of reproductive age about factors that influence fertility and pregnancy health negatively. Addressing these knowledge gaps in school curricula, primary care and health promotion would assist people to realize their reproductive goals and reduce the risk of infertility and adverse obstetric outcomes.
Laser cladding with powder, effect of some machining parameters on clad properties

This thesis is directed to laser cladding with powder and a CO2 laser as heat source. The laser beam intensity profile turned out to be an important pa6 Summary rameter in laser cladding. A numerical model was developed that allows the prediction of the surface temperature distribution that is attained with an arbitrarily shaped intensity profile. Input parameters for this model are laser machining parameters and properties of the laser beam, as well as material properties and the absorption of laser energy at the surface. The thermal material properties and the absorptivity were derived from experiments.
Towards a faster network-centric subgraph census

Determining the frequency of small subgraphs is an important computational task lying at the core of several graph mining methodologies, such as network motifs discovery or graphlet based measurements. In this paper we try to improve a class of algorithms available for this purpose, namely network-centric algorithms, which are based upon the enumeration of all sets of k connected nodes. Past approaches would essentially delay isomorphism tests until they had a finalized set of k nodes. In this paper we show how isomorphism testing can be done during the actual enumeration. We use a customized g-trie, a tree data structure, in order to encapsulate the topological information of the embedded subgraphs, identifying already known node permutations of the same subgraph type. With this we avoid redundancy and the need of an isomorphism test for each subgraph occurrence. We tested our algorithm, which we called FaSE, on a set of different real complex networks, both directed and undirected, showcasing that we indeed achieve significant speedups of at least one order of magnitude against past algorithms, paving the way for a faster network-centric approach.
Invariant set analysis for discrete-time polynomial nonlinear feedback systems with dynamic quantizers

This paper deals with invariant set analysis for discrete-time polynomial nonlinear feedback single input and single output systems with dynamic quantizers where the control input signal takes discrete values. The paper starts with invariant set analysis for discrete-time polynomial nonlinear systems with bounded disturbances. Since the quantization error is also bounded, analysis of feedback systems including the dynamic quantizers can be reduced to invariant set analysis. Some sufficient conditions for analysis are obtained that can be solved by numerical optimization. Examples illustrate upper bounds of a cost function based on the proposed analysis method.
Label space driven feature space remapping

The elicitation of labeled training data from physical sources is a primary bottleneck that limits the applicability of traditional supervised learning algorithms. Transfer learning algorithms overcome the limitation for a target domain where training data is scarce or absent by leveraging labeled data from related auxiliary domains. The proposed novel transfer learning frameworks yield a sparse and linear transformation to bridge domains with heterogeneous features without relying on instance or feature correspondences. Extensive experiments are conducted on real-world heterogeneous transfer tasks with diverse datasets of varying dimensions and sparsity to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches over other baseline and state of the art transfer approaches.
Mechanical and optical manipulation of porphyrin rings at the submicrometre scale

Scanning probe microscopes (SPMs) and especially the atomic force microscope (AFM) can be used as tools for modifying surface structures on the submicrometre and even nanometre scale. For this purpose an advanced interface has been developed to facilitate these manipulations and greatly increase the number of possible applications. In this paper this interface (the nanoManipulator, developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is implemented on a combined AFM-confocal microscope. This setup allows AFM imaging, manipulations and fluorescence imaging of the same area on the sample. The new setup is tested on ringlike structures of a porphyrin derivative (BP6). A small amount of the fluorescent material could be displaced with the AFM tip. A special tool (sweep mode) allowed a modification of around 130 nm, which was afterwards detectable with the confocal microscope. The resolution attainable in these kind of experiments could go down below 100 nm and is primarily determined by the tip and sample geometry. Comparable with this experiment is the application of a near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) to make photochemical modifications. Using the excitation power coming from the NSOM probe the fluorescence can be quenched by bleaching a selected area instead of displacing the material. Application on the BP6 rings led to a modification of 280 nm wide. AFM can perform modifications on a smaller scale but is less selective than NSOM. Optical investigation of the changes after AFM manipulation can give more elaborate information on the modifications. This will extend the possible applications of the techniques and may ultimately go down to the single-molecule level.
School Climate and College Attendance for Black Adolescents: Moving Beyond College‐Going Culture

Understanding how contexts promote positive educational outcomes is a critical objective of adolescent research. This study provides support for the established link between school climate and educational outcomes and expands our understanding of this association by examining multiple aspects of school climate in a sample of Black adolescents in the United States (N = 1,740). Data were drawn from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, and multinomial logistic regression and multiple group modeling in a structural equation modeling framework revealed that Black high school students' perceptions of school safety, school liking, and academic press were associated with enrollment in higher education. Null moderation results suggest that these facets of school climate operate similarly for all students regardless of their gender or socioeconomic status.
Liver Metastasis and Treatment Outcome with Anti-PD-1 Monoclonal Antibody in Patients with Melanoma and NSCLC

The association between metastatic site and responses to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy was explored In both melanoma and lung cancer. Liver metastasis was associated with worse outcome and CD8+ T cell-poor tumors, suggesting a potential mechanism for the outcomes. We explored the association between liver metastases, tumor CD8+ T-cell count, and response in patients with melanoma or lung cancer treated with the anti-PD-1 antibody, pembrolizumab. The melanoma discovery cohort was drawn from the phase I Keynote 001 trial, whereas the melanoma validation cohort was drawn from Keynote 002, 006, and EAP trials and the non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cohort from Keynote 001. Liver metastasis was associated with reduced response and shortened progression-free survival [PFS; objective response rate (ORR), 30.6%; median PFS, 5.1 months] compared with patients without liver metastasis (ORR, 56.3%; median PFS, 20.1 months) P ≤ 0.0001, and confirmed in the validation cohort (P = 0.0006). The presence of liver metastasis significantly increased the likelihood of progression (OR, 1.852; P < 0.0001). In a subset of biopsied patients (n = 62), liver metastasis was associated with reduced CD8+ T-cell density at the invasive tumor margin (liver metastasis+ group, n = 547 ± 164.8; liver metastasis− group, n = 1,441 ± 250.7; P < 0.016). A reduced response rate and shortened PFS was also observed in NSCLC patients with liver metastasis [median PFS, 1.8 months; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.4–2.0], compared with those without liver metastasis (n = 119, median PFS, 4.0 months; 95% CI, 2.1–5.1), P = 0.0094. Thus, liver metastatic patients with melanoma or NSCLC that had been treated with pembrolizumab were associated with reduced responses and PFS, and liver metastases were associated with reduced marginal CD8+ T-cell infiltration, providing a potential mechanism for this outcome. Cancer Immunol Res; 5(5); 417–24. ©2017 AACR.
Joint reconstruction of PET-MRI by exploiting structural similarity

Recent advances in technology have enabled the combination of positron emission tomography (PET) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These PET-MRI scanners simultaneously acquire functional PET and anatomical or functional MRI data. As function and anatomy are not independent of one another the images to be reconstructed are likely to have shared structures. We aim to exploit this inherent structural similarity by reconstructing from both modalities in a joint reconstruction framework. The structural similarity between two modalities can be modelled in two different ways: edges are more likely to be at similar positions and/or to have similar orientations. We analyse the diffusion process generated by minimizing priors that encapsulate these different models. It turns out that the class of parallel level set priors always corresponds to anisotropic diffusion which is sometimes forward and sometimes backward diffusion. We perform numerical experiments where we jointly reconstruct from blurred Radon data with Poisson noise (PET) and under-sampled Fourier data with Gaussian noise (MRI). Our results show that both modalities benefit from each other in areas of shared edge information. The joint reconstructions have less artefacts and sharper edges compared to separate reconstructions and the ℓ2-error can be reduced in all of the considered cases of under-sampling.
Clinicopathologic features of lingual canine T‐zone lymphoma

Canine T-zone lymphoma (TZL) is a subtype of T-cell lymphoma characterized by unique histologic pattern and cytomorphology, immunophenotypic loss of CD45 expression, and an indolent clinical behaviour. Dogs with TZL typically present with 1 or more enlarged lymph nodes and/or lymphocytosis. We describe a novel extranodal presentation of TZL involving the tongue. Twelve dogs with tongue masses were diagnosed with lingual TZL based on a variable combination of immunophenotyping via flow cytometry, cytology, histopathology, immunohistochemistry and/or PCR for antigen receptor rearrangement (PARR) assay. Eleven dogs exhibited concurrent lymphocytosis and/or lymph node enlargement. Three cases were initially diagnosed as plasma cell tumours based on histology alone, thereby revealing a potential diagnostic challenge. Seven dogs achieved clinical remission and 4 achieved stable disease following variable treatment, consistent with the indolent nature of typical TZL involving the lymph nodes and peripheral blood. In 1 case the TZL resulted in progressive disease and failure to respond to treatment. In this case, the TZL exhibited histologic features of a higher grade neoplasm. This case series highlights a unique presentation of TZL and identifies a new differential diagnosis for lingual neoplasia. In this study, we characterize the clinical presentation, diagnostic features and patient outcomes of 12 dogs with lingual TZL.
Vibronic contributions to charge transport across molecular junctions

We report low-temperature charge transport measurements of metal-molecule-metal junctions. Studies on insulating alkyl and π-conjugated molecular wires provide experimental insight into the coupling between tunnel charge carriers and molecular vibrations in molecular electronic systems. By comparison with other vibrational spectroscopy studies and density functional theory calculations, the observed vibrational peaks have been assigned to longitudinal modes of the molecules.
Assessing group cohesion in homophily networks

The analysis and exploration of a social network depends on the type of relations at play. Borgatti had proposed a type taxonomy organizing relations in four possible categories. Homophily (similarity) relationships form an important category where relations occur when entities of the network link whenever they exhibit similar behaviors. Examples are networks of co-author, where homophily between two persons follows from co-authorship; or network of actors having played under the supervision of the same movie director, for instance. Homophily is often embodied through a bipartite network where entities of a given type A (authors, movie directors) connect through entities of a different type ℬ (papers, actors). A common strategy is then to project this bipartite graph onto a single-type network with entities of a same type A, possibly weighting edges based on how the type A entities interact with the type ℬ entities underlying the edge. The resulting single-type network can then be studied using standard techniques such as community detection using edge density, or the computation of various centrality indices. This paper revisits this type of approach and introduces a homogeneity measure inspired form past work by Burt. Two entities of type ℬ interact when they both induce a same edge between two entities of type A. The homogeneity of a subgroup thus depends on how intensely and how equally interactions occur between entities of type ℬ giving rise to the subgroup. The measure thus differentiates between subgroups of type A exhibiting similar topologies depending on the interaction patterns of the underlying entities of type ℬ. The method is validated using two widely used datasets. A first example looks at authors of the IEEE InfoVis Conference (InfoVis 2007 Contest). A second example looks at homophily relations between movie actors that have played under the direction of a same director (IMDB).
Comparison Study between NOMA and SCMA

In this paper, the performance and system complexity of the candidate multiple access (MA) techniques for the next generation of cellular systems, namely, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) (in this paper, we consider power domain MA as NOMA) and sparse code multiple access (SCMA), are investigated. To this end, for each MA technique, a resource allocation problem considering heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNet) is formulated. We apply successive convex approximation (SCA) method to each problem and obtain their solutions. The simulation results show that SCMA-based system achieves better performance than NOMA-based one at the cost of more complexity.