Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Análise das deformações em tubos de aço reparados com compósitos tipo carbono/epóxi

The main objective of this work is to present the values of the circumferential normal deformations obtained from numerical simulations of metallic pipes (AISI Steel 1020, length L = 400 mm, external diameter D = 400 mm and thickness t = 2 mm) in the following conditions: (i) perfect; (ii) machined on 25% of its length along its central region to a thinckness reduction of 50%, in order to simulate a defect; and (iii) repaired with a carbon/epoxy composite (balanced woven fabrics of fibers, AS4 - Hexcel), subjected to different internal pressures, from 2 to 10 MPa, using the non linear finite element program COMPSHELL. And, in addition, to verify if the applied composite repairing are able to restore the original stiffness of the pipes, previous to the machining operation. It was observed that there is a minimum thickness, which is required for the carbon/epoxy repairing to restore the local stiffness lost on the machining operation. The radial displacements and the circumferential strain were used as references to evaluate how effective the repair was. The minimum thickness of the repairing depends on the ratio of the elasticity moduli of the repaired and the original material of the tube. As far as this work is concerned, the required repair thickness is 3.05 mm.
Efficient Data Collection in Wireless Sensor Networks with Path-Constrained Mobile Sinks

Recent work has shown that sink mobility along a constrained path can improve the energy efficiency in wireless sensor networks. However, due to the path constraint, a mobile sink with constant speed has limited communication time to collect data from the sensor nodes deployed randomly. This poses significant challenges in jointly improving the amount of data collected and reducing the energy consumption. To address this issue, we propose a novel data collection scheme, called the Maximum Amount Shortest Path (MASP), that increases network throughput as well as conserves energy by optimizing the assignment of sensor nodes. MASP is formulated as an integer linear programming problem and then solved with the help of a genetic algorithm. A two-phase communication protocol based on zone partition is designed to implement the MASP scheme. We also develop a practical distributed approximate algorithm to solve the MASP problem. In addition, the impact of different overlapping time partition methods is studied. The proposed algorithms and protocols are validated through simulation experiments using OMNET++.
Fabrication and characterisation of silicon quantum dots in SiO2/Si3N4 hybrid matrix

Si quantum dots in SiO2/Si3N4 hybrid matrix on quartz substrates were fabricated by magnetron sputtering of alternating silicon rich oxide and Si3N4 layers followed by different post-deposition anneals. X-ray diffraction results indicate that the average dimension of the Si QDs ranges from 1.6 to 5.2 nm. The size and crystallisation of the Si nanocrystals are dependent on a number of factors, including the annealing condition, the SRO thickness and the Si3N4 barrier thickness, as evidenced in XRD and Raman measurements. In particular, thicker Si3N4 barrier layers seem to be able to suppress the growth of Si nanocrystals more effectively. PL measurements indicate that the apparent bandgap of the samples investigated in this work is in the range 1.12-1.67 eV, which demonstrates the effect of quantum confinement. More interestingly, analysis of the PL data reveals that the PL peak energy does not only depend on the size of the nanocrystals, but also affected by other details of the nanocrystal formation. A simple core-shell model is constructed to illustrate our explanation. These findings offer a preliminary understanding of the nanocrystal growth and radiative recombination processes in this newly synthesized material.
The Analysis and Synthesis of Jazz by Computer

The jazz musician has two problems. The first is the creation of melodic material. The second is the problem of fitting the melodic material into a particular harmonic structure. The work described in this paper concentrates on this second problem. To solve the problem we utilized a harmonic theory which allowed the identification of key centers and the assignment of functional meaning to chords. From this we constructed scales that were compatible with the analyzed harmonic structure. These scales were then used to translate abstract melodic material into sequences of notes that sound compatible with the background chords.
ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC (EEG) CORRELATES OF SOME ACTIVITIES WHICH MAY ALTER CONSCIOUSNESS: THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE, MUSICOGENIC STATES, MICROWAVE RESONANCE RELAXATION, HEALER/HEALEE INTERACTION, AND ALERTNESS/DROWSINESS

A key problem of finding the most complete and useful theory of consciousness may revolve around how to empirically de- termine different styles or states of consciousness and how to incorporate these within a single paradigm. This was our motivation to start examination of EEG correlates of some activities or substates of consciousness which occur spontaneously or are induced artifi- cially. Our investigations demonstrated more or less characteristic features in 25 subjects practicing the Transcendental Meditation program (increased β power in prefrontal region, increased θ power in left frontal and right temporal regions, increased α power in both temporal regions, and correlation between increased α power and decreased correlation dimension), 6 subjects with 4 types of spiritual music provided to induce musicogenic states (with significant changes in only 3 cases out of 24, where increased θ and α power was observed in only those subjects who have described their musical experiences as very pleasant), 28 subjects of relaxation induced by microwave resonance therapy applied to corresponding acupuncture points (with slightly decreased EEG power in all fre- quency bands, especially in the left central region, which can be ascribed to higher activation of the stimulated left circulatory part of the acupuncture system; it should be also noted that persons not previously subjected to this treatment responded stronger, presumably as a consequence of the more imbalanced acupuncture system), 5 healer/healee, noncontact interactions (with increase in the maximum mean coherence of their EEG patterns in the α band observed only in short 4s time intervals), and 30 subjects for monitoring alert- ness/drowsiness level (with implemented automatic procedure of the neural network classifier to assess the correlation between EEG power spectrum fluctuations related to changes of vigilance level, demonstrating linear separability of the states of alert wakefulness and drowsy wakefulness, allowing very fast data processing and possible real time applications in clinical practice). New technologies applied to the EEG may permit rapid and reproducible identification of different styles or states of consciousness. Such a tool might be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of different techniques for stress reduction and for altering expressions of consciousness.
Field-dependent conductivity in non-uniform fields and its relation to electrical breakdown

A method is given for calculating the resulting field distribution when the conductivity is a function of the field strength. This is applied to a point-plane electrode system in an amorphous solid, with the assumption that the condictivity at low field-strengths is described by a relation due to Frohlich. The results show that for polymethylmethacrylate with average fields of the order of 106 volt/cm, the reduction in maximum field-strength from that calculated for constant conductivity can be factor of five or more, the magnitude of the reduction depending on the degree of non-uniformity of the field. Energy-level data required for the calculation are given for glass, polyethylene, polymethylmethacrylate and several types of varnish, and incomplete data are given for chlorinated polyethylene polystyrene and polyisobutylene. The results are applied to breakdown in a non-uniform, and a method is suggested for determining experimentally whether breakdown occurs when the maximum stress reaches the intrinsic electric strength, or whether it is necessary for the intrinsic electric strength to be created over a given distance.
SGK-1 regulates inflammation and cell death in the ischemic-reperfused heart: pressure-related effects.

BACKGROUND Systemic hypertension and the associated increased myocardial load/mechanical stress are common in patients with coronary heart disease. Thus, unraveling of mechanosensitive molecular mechanisms that determine cell fate in the setting of cardiac tissue injury is of scientific and clinical relevance. We tested the hypothesis that the prosurvival, mechanosensitive, serum glucocorticoid-regulated kinase-1 (SGK-1) is a pivotal determinant of pressure-related inflammatory response and cell fate in the ischemic-reperfused heart. METHODS Langendorff-perfused rat hearts were subjected to an ischemia reperfusion (IR) insult, at 80 or 160cm water, with perfusate lacking or containing the SGK-1 inhibitor GSK650394A (1 μM); normoxic hearts served as controls. Thereafter, hearts tissues were used for Western blotting or cardiac cells were prepared for flow cytometry and immunofluorescent studies. RESULTS An IR insult (i) reduced phosphoSGK-1 (active and protective) in association with disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential (ψm) and increased apoptosis and necrosis and (ii) increased expressions of growth-arrest and DNA damage-associated protein 153 (GADD153; a determinant of inflammation and cell death) and the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL) 17; these effects were greater at high pressure. On the other hand, the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-10 and IL-27 increased more in ischemic-reperfused hearts subjected to low pressure. SGK-1 inhibition further reduced phosphoSGK-1, increased GADD153 and IL-17, and reduced IL-10 and IL-27 in association with augmented disruption of ψm and exacerbated cell death; these effects were greater at low pressure. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate a major pressure-related role for SGK-1 in regulating inflammation and cell fate in the ischemic-reperfused heart.
Chemical changes with maturation of the bamboo species phyllostachys pubescens

LI, X. B. , SHUPE, T. F. , PETER, G. F. , HSE, C. Y. & EBERHARDT, T. L. 2007. Chemical changes with maturation of the bamboo species Phyllostachys pubescens. Bamboo chemical properties were measured at three different heights from one-, threeand five-year-old plants and at three different radial positions from the three-year-old culms of Phyllostachys pubescens grown in south-eastern USA. Small but significant increases in holocellulose and α-cellulose contents were detected from the base to the top of the culm at all three ages. In contrast, no significant differences in Klason lignin and ash were detected. The increases in carbohydrate content with age correlated with increases in specific gravity. Alcohol-toluene extractive content increased from the base to the top of the stem in the three-year-old and five-year-old bamboo and showed a continuous increase with age. The epidermis had the highest extractive and ash contents and the lowest holocellulose and α-cellulose contents. The outer layer of the stem had the highest holocellulose, α-cellulose and Klason lignin contents and the lowest extractive and ash contents. The chemical content and specific gravity of bamboo stabilizes at about three years of age, which is an appropriate time for harvesting.
Genome-wide Analysis of Transcription Factor E2F1 Mutant Proteins Reveals That N- and C-terminal Protein Interaction Domains Do Not Participate in Targeting E2F1 to the Human Genome

Previous studies of E2F family members have suggested that protein-protein interactions may be the mechanism by which E2F proteins are recruited to specific genomic regions. We have addressed this hypothesis on a genome-wide scale using ChIP-seq analysis of MCF7 cell lines that express tagged wild type and mutant E2F1 proteins. First, we performed ChIP-seq for tagged WT E2F1. Then, we analyzed E2F1 proteins that lacked the N-terminal SP1 and cyclin A binding domains, the C-terminal transactivation and pocket protein binding domains, and the internal marked box domain. Surprisingly, we found that the ChIP-seq patterns of the mutant proteins were identical to that of WT E2F1. However, mutation of the DNA binding domain abrogated all E2F1 binding to the genome. These results suggested that the interaction between the E2F1 DNA binding domain and a consensus motif may be the primary determinant of E2F1 recruitment. To address this possibility, we analyzed the in vivo binding sites for the in vitro-derived consensus E2F1 motif (TTTSSCGC) and also performed de novo motif analysis. We found that only 12% of the ChIP-seq peaks contained the TTTSSCGC motif. De novo motif analysis indicated that most of the in vivo sites lacked the 5′ half of the in vitro-derived consensus, having instead the in vivo consensus of CGCGC. In summary, our findings do not provide support for the model that protein-protein interactions are involved in recruiting E2F1 to the genome, but rather suggest that recognition of a motif found at most human promoters is the critical determinant.
A Hybrid Approach for Radio Resource Management in Heterogeneous Cognitive Networks

Distributing Radio Resource Management (RRM) in heterogeneous wireless networks is an important research and development axis that aims at reducing network complexity. In this context, RRM decision making can be delegated to mobiles by incorporating cognitive capabilities into mobile handsets, resulting in the reduction of signalling and processing burden. This may however result in inefficiencies (such as those known as the "tragedy of commons") that are inherent to equilibria in non-cooperative games. Due to the concern for efficiency, centralized network architectures and protocols keep being considered and being compared to decentralized ones. From the point of view of the network architecture, this implies the co-existence of network-centric and terminal-centric RRM schemes. Instead of taking part within the debate among the supporters of each solution, we propose in this paper hybrid schemes where the wireless users are assisted in their decisions by the network that broadcasts aggregated load information. At some system's states, the network manager may impose his decisions on the network users. In other states the mobiles may take autonomous actions in reaction to information sent by the network. In order to improve the performance of the non-cooperative scenario, we investigate the properties of an alternative solution concept named Stackelberg game, in which the network tries to control the users' behavior by broadcasting appropriate information, expected to maximize its utility, while individual users maximize their own utility. We derive analytically the utilities related to the Quality of Service (QoS) perceived by mobile users and develop a Bayesian framework to obtain the equilibria. Numerical results illustrate the advantages of using our hybrid game framework in an association problem in a network composed of HSDPA and 3G LTE system that serve streaming and elastic flows.
Efficiency in Employee-Owned Enterprises

The authors undertake the first econometric study of efficiency for Eroski, the largest member of the Mondragon group of worker cooperatives. Three types of stores are found within Eroski: 1) cooperatives with significant employee ownership and voice; 2) cooperatives with modest employee ownership and limited voice (known as GESPAs); and 3) conventional stores with no employee ownership. Key data are monthly observations—9,800 for supermarkets and 2,150 for hypermarkets (large superstores combining supermarkets and department stores). By estimating first-difference models, the authors find that hypermarket stores with cooperative ownership have significantly faster sales growth than do GESPA stores. For supermarkets overall, they find no significant differences in performance among the three types of stores. For a subgroup of small supermarkets, however, cooperatives outperform conventional stores. To investigate the mechanisms that help explain why cooperatives perform better, the authors provide additional evidence that takes into account the more extensive opportunities for employee involvement, training, and stronger economic incentives in cooperatives. While cooperative members are better paid than peers in comparable firms, individual data show that job satisfaction is lower for cooperative workers than for GESPA workers. Though this may reflect higher worker expectations in cooperatives, alternatively cooperatives may constitute a “high-stress work system. ”
Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling of the electroencephalogram effect of synthetic opioids in the rat: correlation with the interaction at the mu-opioid receptor.

The purpose of our investigation was to characterize the relationships between the pharmacodynamics of synthetic opioids in vivo and the interaction at the mu-opioid receptor. The pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics were determined in vivo after a single i.v. infusion of 3.14 mg/kg alfentanil (A), 0.15 mg/kg fentanyl (F) or 0.030 mg/kg sufentanil (S) in rats. Amplitudes in the 0.5 to 4.5 Hz frequency band of the electroencephalogram (EEG) was used as pharmacodynamic endpoint. The EEG effect intensity was related to the (free) concentration in blood (A) or in a hypothetical effect compartment (F, S) on basis of the sigmoidal Emax pharmacodynamic model. The interaction at the mu-opioid receptor was determined in vitro on basis of the displacement of [3H]-naloxone binding in washed rat brain membranes. The value of the sodium shift was used as a measure of in vitro intrinsic efficacy. For the EEG effect the in vivo potencies based on free drug concentrations (EC50,u) were 4.62 +/- 0.66 ng/ml (A), 0.69 +/- 0.05 ng/ml (F) and 0.29 +/- 0.06 ng/ml (S). In the receptor binding studies the affinities at the mu-opioid receptor (Kl) were 47.4 +/- 6.6 nM (A), 8.6 +/- 4.1 nM (F) and 2.8 +/- 0.2 nM (S). For each opioid the ratio between EC50,u and Kl was the same with a value of 0.23-0.25, indicating the existence of receptor reserve for the EEG effect. The intrinsic activity (Emax) of the three opioids in vivo was similar with values of 111 +/- 10 microV (A), 89 +/- 11 microV (F) and 104 +/- 4 microV (S). However, the values of the sodium shift varied between 2.8 (S) and 19.1 (A). Further analysis of the in vivo pharmacodynamic data on basis of an operational model of agonism provided evidence for a large receptor reserve, which explains why compounds with different values of the sodium shift all behave as full agonists in vivo.
Effect of Cinnamon Oil on Quorum Sensing-Controlled Virulence Factors and Biofilm Formation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Quorum sensing (QS) is a system of stimuli and responses in bacterial cells governed by their population density, through which they regulate genes that control virulence factors and biofilm formation. Despite considerable research on QS and the discovery of new antibiotics, QS-controlled biofilm formation by microorganisms in clinical settings has remained a problem because of nascent drug resistance, which requires screening of diverse compounds for anti-QS activities. Cinnamon is a dietary phytochemical that is traditionally used to remedy digestive problems and assorted contagions, which suggests that cinnamon might contain chemicals that can hinder the QS process. To test this hypothesis, the anti-QS activity of cinnamon oil against P. aeruginosa was tested, measured by the inhibition of biofilm formation and other QS-associated phenomena, including virulence factors such as pyocyanin, rhamnolipid, protease, alginate production, and swarming activity. To this end, multiple microscopy analyses, including light, scanning electron and confocal microscopy, revealed the ability of cinnamon oil to inhibit P. aeruginosa PAO1 biofilms and their accompanying extracellular polymeric substances. This work is the first to demonstrate that cinnamon oil can influence various QS-based phenomena in P. aeruginosa PAO1, including biofilm formation.
Applying PageRank Algorithm in Requirement Concern Impact Analysis

As an important part of requirement management, managing requirement change plays a key role in controlling project schedule and costs at early stage. Effective requirement impact analysis would give proper assessment on the effect of certain requirement changes on the whole system, and provide useful information for making trade-off decisions on future system design and implementation. In this paper a quantitative approach to concern impact analysis at requirement level has been proposed with the application of PageRank algorithm, which is a successful link based web page sorting algorithm. At first, separation of concerns is applied during deriving formal requirement specification from textual requirement statements. Next, concerns are specified and concern relationship graph is established. Finally, PageRank algorithm is utilized on concern relationship graph for assessing the impact of concern changes. Our approach has been applied to hallway section in Light Control System and validation of analysis result has been stated.
Exploiting Locality of Interaction in Networked Distributed POMDPs

In many real-world multiagent applications such as distributed sensor nets, a network of agents is formed based on each agent’s limited interactions with a small number of neighbors. While distributed POMDPs capture the real-world uncertainty in multiagent domains, they fail to exploit such locality of interaction. Distributed constraint optimization (DCOP) captures the locality of interaction but fails to capture planning under uncertainty. In previous work, we presented a model synthesized from distributed POMDPs and DCOPs, called Networked Distributed POMDPs (ND-POMDPs). Also, we presented LID-JESP (locally interacting distributed joint equilibrium-based search for policies: a distributed policy generation algorithm based on DBA (distributed breakout algorithm). In this paper, we present a stochastic variation of the LID-JESP that is based on DSA (distributed stochastic algorithm) that allows neighboring agents to change their policies in the same cycle. Through detailed experiments, we show how this can result in speedups without a large difference in solution quality. We also introduce a technique called hyper-linkbased decomposition that allows us to exploit locality of interaction further, resulting in faster run times for both LID-JESP and its stochastic variant without any loss in solution quality.