Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of dielectrophoresis in the fabrication of an atomic force microscope tip with a carbon nanotube: experimental investigation

We have developed a method for fabricating a carbon nanotube (CNT) tip for an atomic force microscope (AFM). To attach a CNT to the tip apex, we used dielectrophoresis (DEP) with a non-uniform electric field. After inserting a drop of CNT solution and applying an AC electric field between a metal-coated AFM tip and an electrode plate, CNTs were deposited directly on the tip so that they protruded from the tip. We fabricated tips with individual multi-walled carbon nanotubes and found the experimental conditions that gave high fabrication yields. From AFM measurements of the nanoscale anodized aluminium oxide (AAO) structure, we have shown that a CNT tip assembled using DEP can produce high-resolution images and have a good wear resistance.
Source-level transformations for improved formal verification

A major obstacle to widespread acceptance of formal verification is the difficulty in using the tools effectively. Although learning the basic syntax and operation of a formal verification tool may be easy, expert users are often able to accomplish a verification task while a novice user encounters time-out or space-out attempting the same task. In this paper, we assert that often a novice user will model a system in a different manner-semantically equivalent, but less efficient for the verification tool-than an expert user would, that some of these inefficient modeling choices can be easily detected at the source-code level, and that a robust verification tool should identify these inefficiencies and optimize them, thereby helping to close the gap between novice and expert users. To test our hypothesis, we propose some possible optimizations for the Mur/spl phi/ verification system, implement the simplest of these, and compare the results on a variety of examples written by both experts and novices (the Mur/spl phi/ distribution examples, a set of cache coherence protocol models, and a portion of the IEEE 1394 Firewire protocol). The results support our assertion-a nontrivial fraction of the Mur/spl phi/ models written by novice users were significantly accelerated by the very simple optimization. Our findings strongly support further research in this area.
Neuro-Symbolic Agents: Boltzmann Machines and Probabilistic Abstract Argumentation with Sub-Arguments

Towards neuro-argumentative agents based on the seamless integration of neural networks and defeasible formalisms, with principled probabilistic settings and along efficient algorithms, we investigate argumentative Boltzmann machines where the possible states of a Boltzmann machine are constrained by a prior argumentative knowledge. To make our ideas as widely applicable as possible, and acknowledging the role of sub-arguments in probabilistic argumentation, we consider an abstract argumentation framework accounting for sub-arguments, but where the content of (sub-)arguments is left unspecified. We validate our proposal with artificial datasets and suggest its advantages.
Combined anti-fetal liver kinase 1 monoclonal antibody and continuous low-dose doxorubicin inhibits angiogenesis and growth of human soft tissue sarcoma xenografts by induction of endothelial cell apoptosis.

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and VEGF receptor 2 [fetal liver kinase 1 (Flk-1)/kinase insert domain-containing receptor] have been shown to play a major role in tumor angiogenesis. In this study, we investigated whether anti-Flk-1 monoclonal antibody DC101 could therapeutically inhibit growth and angiogenesis of human soft tissue sarcoma, and we explored its capacity to enhance the tumoricidal effects of doxorubicin. Treatment of well-established leiomyosarcoma SKLMS-1 and rhabdomyosarcoma RD xenografts in severe combined immunodeficient mice with DC101 resulted in significant antitumor activity. In a parallel study, we compared tumor inhibition with continuous low-dose "antiangiogenic" schedule versus once-every-2-weeks high-dose standard schedule of doxorubicin. We found that continuous low-dose treatment inhibited the tumor growth of RD xenografts about 46.5% of that with standard-schedule treatment, but that continuous low-dose treatment did not inhibit the tumor growth of SKLMS-1 xenografts. Notably, combined DC101 and continuous low-dose doxorubicin resulted in more effective growth inhibition of SKLMS-1 and RD xenografts than has been observed with any agent alone in a long-term s.c. tumor xenograft model. The combination therapy was associated with no additional toxicity to the host animal compared with low-dose doxorubicin alone. Histological examination of xenografts showed significantly reduced microvessel counts in the tumors given combined therapy compared with the tumors given either agent alone. These results are consistent with an enhanced inhibition of angiogenesis in vivo by combined DC101 and doxorubicin using Matrigel plug assay. Additionally, DC101 plus doxorubicin directly exerted enhanced inhibitory effects on endothelial cell migration, proliferation, and tube-like formation in vitro. Furthermore, the combination induced an enhanced apoptosis of endothelial cells that was associated with an increase of capase-3 activity. Thus, the inhibition of angiogenesis and induction of endothelial cell apoptosis are likely important mechanisms for the antitumor activity of combined DC101 and doxorubicin. Collectively, our data suggested that anti-VEGF receptor 2 in combination with continuous low-dose doxorubicin may provide a new therapeutic approach for human soft tissue sarcoma in the clinic.
M2M gateway selection scheme for smart wireless devices

Wireless standardization activities such as the Bluetooth V4.x (Bluetooth smart) have led to an explosive growth in innovative short-range wireless devices capable of providing various services to assist everyday life. Allowing Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication between these M2M devices also enable new commercial service opportunities. The M2M service providers including telecom carriers may need to establish new networks to accommodate M2M interactions while identifying new business opportunities. Typically M2M devices need another capable device such as a smartphone to act as a gateway to connect to the Internet to operate at its full potential. We propose a scheme where any Internet enabled device in the surrounding environment can act as an M2M gateway for M2M devices. This eliminates the need for the M2M device user to also own an Internet enabled device such as a smartphone to obtain services such as Online-to-Offline. This scheme faces new challenges such as, how to identify a best M2M gateway for a required service and QoS etc. This paper proposes a method to select an M2M gateway among many others, in order to increase service availability while obtaining better signal strength for higher QoS. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using real world data collected at an exhibition with encouraging results.
Specific Inhibition of Spleen Tyrosine Kinase Suppresses Leukocyte Immune Function and Inflammation in Animal Models of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Based on genetic studies that establish the role of spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) in immune function, inhibitors of this kinase are being investigated as therapeutic agents for inflammatory diseases. Because genetic studies eliminate both adapter functions and kinase activity of Syk, it is difficult to delineate the effect of kinase inhibition alone as would be the goal with small-molecule kinase inhibitors. We tested the hypothesis that specific pharmacological inhibition of Syk activity retains the immunomodulatory potential of Syk genetic deficiency. We report here on the discovery of (4-(3-(2H-1,2,3-triazol-2-yl)phenylamino)-2-((1R,2S)-2-aminocyclohexylamino) pyrimidine-5-carboxamide acetate (P505-15), a highly specific and potent inhibitor of purified Syk (IC50 1–2 nM). In human whole blood, P505-15 potently inhibited B cell antigen receptor-mediated B cell signaling and activation (IC50 0.27 and 0.28 μM, respectively) and Fcε receptor 1-mediated basophil degranulation (IC50 0.15 μM). Similar levels of ex vivo inhibition were measured after dosing in mice (Syk signaling IC50 0.32 μM). Syk-independent signaling and activation were unaffected at much higher concentrations, demonstrating the specificity of kinase inhibition in cellular systems. Oral administration of P505-15 produced dose-dependent anti-inflammatory activity in two rodent models of rheumatoid arthritis. Statistically significant efficacy was observed at concentrations that specifically suppressed Syk activity by ∼67%. Thus specific Syk inhibition can mimic Syk genetic deficiency to modulate immune function, providing a therapeutic strategy in P505-15 for the treatment of human diseases.
Improving Reliability in Multi-hop Body Sensor Networks

Body sensor networks are an interesting emerging application of wireless sensor networks to improve healthcare and the quality of life. Current research has mainly focused on single-hop networks, although some works clearly show advantages of multi-hop architectures. In this paper, we model probabilistic connectivity in such multi-hop body sensor networks. Instead of using a circular coverage area, a more accurate model is defined based on the path loss along the human body. Further, we propose improvements to CICADA, a cross-layer multi-hop protocol that handles both medium access and the routing of data in BSNs. CICDA is slot-based and uses schemes to allocate these slots. Preliminary results for two reliability improvements are given: randomization of the schemes and repeating the schemes received from a parent node. We show that these improvements positively affect the throughput of the network and lead to fewer retransmissions. In both cases, the energy consumption of the nodes is hardly influenced.
Heterogeneity-Aware Resource Allocation and Scheduling in the Cloud

Data analytics are key applications running in the cloud computing environment. To improve performance and cost-effectiveness of a data analytics cluster in the cloud, the data analytics system should account for heterogeneity of the environment and workloads. In addition, it also needs to provide fairness among jobs when multiple jobs share the cluster. In this paper, we rethink resource allocation and job scheduling on a data analytics system in the cloud to embrace the heterogeneity of the underlying platforms and workloads. To that end, we suggest an architecture to allocate resources to a data analytics cluster in the cloud, and propose a metric of share in a heterogeneous cluster to realize a scheduling scheme that achieves high performance and fairness.
An empirical test of partner choice mechanisms in a wild legume–rhizobium interaction

Mutualisms can be viewed as biological markets in which partners of different species exchange goods and services to their mutual benefit. Trade between partners with conflicting interests requires mechanisms to prevent exploitation. Partner choice theory proposes that individuals might foil exploiters by preferentially directing benefits to cooperative partners. Here, we test this theory in a wild legume–rhizobium symbiosis. Rhizobial bacteria inhabit legume root nodules and convert atmospheric dinitrogen (N2) to a plant available form in exchange for photosynthates. Biological market theory suits this interaction because individual plants exchange resources with multiple rhizobia. Several authors have argued that microbial cooperation could be maintained if plants preferentially allocated resources to nodules harbouring cooperative rhizobial strains. It is well known that crop legumes nodulate non-fixing rhizobia, but allocate few resources to those nodules. However, this hypothesis has not been tested in wild legumes which encounter partners exhibiting natural, continuous variation in symbiotic benefit. Our greenhouse experiment with a wild legume, Lupinus arboreus, showed that although plants frequently hosted less cooperative strains, the nodules occupied by these strains were smaller. Our survey of wild-grown plants showed that larger nodules house more Bradyrhizobia, indicating that plants may prevent the spread of exploitation by favouring better cooperators.
Analogues of CTL epitopes with improved MHC class‐I binding capacity elicit anti‐melanoma CTL recognizing the wild‐type epitope

The MHC class‐1 binding affinity of an epitope is an important parameter determining the immunogenicity of the peptide‐MHC complex. In order to improve the immunogenicity of an epitope derived from melanocyte lineage‐specific antigen gp 100, we performed amino‐acid substitutions within the epitope and assayed both HLA‐A*0201 binding and CTL recognition. Anchor replacements towards the HLA‐A*0201 peptide‐binding motif gave rise to peptides with higher HLA‐A*0201 binding capacity compared to the wild‐type epitope. In addition, several of the gp100 154–162 epitope‐analogues were more efficient at target‐cell sensitization for lysis by anti‐gp100 154–162 CTL compared to the wild‐type epitope. These altered gp100 154–162 epitopes were subsequently tested for their capacity to induce CTL responses in vivo using HLA‐A*0201/Kb transgenic mice, and in vitro using HLA‐A*0201+ donor‐derived lymphocytes. Interestingly, the peptide‐specific CTL obtained, which were raised against the different gp 100 154–162 epitope‐analogues, displayed cross‐reactivity with target cells endogenously processing and presenting the native epitope. These data demonstrate that altered epitopes can be exploited to elicit native epitope‐reactive CTL. The use of epitope‐analogues with improved immunogenicity may contribute to the development of CTL‐epitope based vaccines in viral disease and cancer. Int. J. Cancer, 70:302–309, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Joint Optimization of Robot Design and Motion Parameters using the Implicit Function Theorem

We present a novel computational approach to optimizing the morphological design of robots. Our framework takes as input a parameterized robot design and a motion plan consisting of trajectories for end-effectors, as well as optionally, for its body. The algorithm we propose is used to optimize design parameters, namely link lengths and the placement of actuators, while concurrently adjusting motion parameters such as joint trajectories, actuator inputs, and contact forces. Our key insight is that the complex relationship between design and motion parameters can be established via sensitivity analysis if the robot’s movements are modeled as spatio-temporal solutions to optimal control problems. This relationship between form and function allows us to automatically optimize robot designs based on specifications expressed as a function of range of motion or actuator forces. We evaluate our model by computationally optimizing two simulated robots that employ linear actuators: a manipulator and a large quadruped. We further validate our framework by optimizing the design of a small quadrupedal robot and testing its performance using a hardware implementation.
Extra N-Terminal Residues Have a Profound Effect on the Aggregation Properties of the Potential Yeast Prion Protein Mca1

The metacaspase Mca1 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae displays a Q/N-rich region at its N-terminus reminiscent of yeast prion proteins. In this study, we show that the ability of Mca1 to form insoluble aggregates is modulated by a peptide stretch preceding its putative prion-forming domain. Based on its genomic locus, three potential translational start sites of Mca1 can give rise to two slightly different long Mca1 proteins or a short version, Mca1451/453 and Mca1432, respectively, although under normal physiological conditions Mca1432 is the predominant form expressed. All Mca1 variants exhibit the Q/N-rich regions, while only the long variants Mca1451/453 share an extra stretch of 19 amino acids at their N-terminal end. Strikingly, only long versions of Mca1 but not Mca1432 revealed pronounced aggregation in vivo and displayed prion-like properties when fused to the C-terminal domain of Sup35 suggesting that the N-terminal peptide element promotes the conformational switch of Mca1 protein into an insoluble state. Transfer of the 19 N-terminal amino acid stretch of Mca1451 to the N-terminus of firefly luciferase resulted in increased aggregation of luciferase, suggesting a protein destabilizing function of the peptide element. We conclude that the aggregation propensity of the potential yeast prion protein Mca1 in vivo is strongly accelerated by a short peptide segment preceding its Q/N-rich region and we speculate that such a conformational switch might occur in vivo via the usage of alternative translational start sites.
Protest in an Information Society: a review of literature on social movements and new ICTs

New Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are changing the ways in which activists communicate, collaborate and demonstrate. Scholars from a wide range of disciplines, among them sociology, political science and communication, are working to understand these changes. The diversity of perspectives represented enriches the literature, providing an abundant repertoire of tools for examining these phenomena, but it is also an obstacle to understanding. Few works are commonly cited across the field, and most are known only within the confines of their discipline. The absence of a common set of organizing theoretical principles can make it difficult to find connections between these disparate works beyond their common subject matter. This paper responds by locating existing scholarship within a common framework for explaining the emergence, development and outcomes of social movement activity. This provides a logical structure that facilitates conversations across the field around common issues of concern, highlighting connections between scholars and research agendas that might otherwise be difficult to discern.
ESSAC: Enhanced Scalable Secure Access Control Framework for Cloud Storage

Outsourcing data storage and IT workloads to a third-party cloud provider introduces some security risks and time performance degradation. Moreover, controlling access to this data becomes very difficult when the volume of the data and number of users is very high. Various access control techniques have been proposed to address this issue. However, those techniques have complex schemes which are costly to be applied in real scenarios and they have limited flexibility and scalability to large volumes of data and users. In this paper we propose ESSAC which is an enhanced version of the SSAC scheme. ESSAC introduces a fine-grained access control scheme based on a classified Attribute Based Encryption, Role Based Encryption and Single Key Encryption methodology which achieves highest security without degrading the performance. We validate our scheme using a simulation on top of Amazon S3 and compare it to current schemes.
Continuous Process for Recycling of Polyurethane Foam

The investigation deals with the recycling of high resiliency polyurethane (PU) foam by the application of high-power ultrasound in a continuous ultrasonic reactor. The foam has been decrosslinked at various screw speeds and various amplitudes, then blended at different ratios with the virgin polyurethane rubber (PUR) and cured. The die pressure and the total power consumption have been recorded as a function of processing conditions. Rheological and mechanical properties, hardness as well as gel fraction and crosslink density of the decrosslinked foam and cured blends have been measured and compared in an attempt to find out the optimum condition for decrosslinking. Blends have also been prepared using different proportions of ground samples and virgin rubber, and a comparison of the properties between these blends and the blends of the decrosslinked foam has been carried out. The results show that compared to the ground samples, the blends of the decrosslinked samples are easier to mix and exhibit enhanced properties.
A General Approach for True Transient Computation of Viscoelastic Flows

This article considers the problem of solving true-transient flows in planar contractions for Oldroyd-B and Pom-pom fluids. This is conducted through both controlled force and controlled flow-rate configurations, with comparison therein, considering consistency issues. To accomplish this task we employ a novel timedependent hybrid finite element/finite volume (fe/fv) algorithm. Such an approach combines an incremental pressure-correction fe-treatment for mass and momentum equations, with a cell-vertex fv-discretisation of the hyperbolic stress constitutive equation. In particular, we highlight differences in dynamic flow structure evolution within the field and its impact upon stress generation, as a consequence of the choice of driving flow conditions. The advantages of smooth flow transitions are highlighted under controlled-force configurations, in contrast to non-smooth states for controlled flow-rate scenarios.
Towards flexible evolution of Dynamically Adaptive Systems

Modern software systems need to be continuously available under varying conditions. Their ability to dynamically adapt to their execution context is thus increasingly seen as a key to their success. Recently, many approaches were proposed to design and support the execution of Dynamically Adaptive Systems (DAS). However, the ability of a DAS to evolve is limited to the addition, update or removal of adaptation rules or reconfiguration scripts. These artifacts are very specific to the control loop managing such a DAS and runtime evolution of the DAS requirements may affect other parts of the DAS. In this paper, we argue to evolve all parts of the loop. We suggest leveraging recent advances in model-driven techniques to offer an approach that supports the evolution of both systems and their adaptation capabilities. The basic idea is to consider the control loop itself as an adaptive system.
Hyperbolic Positioning Using RIPS Measurements for Wireless Sensor Networks

Measurements based on a Radio Interferometric Positioning System (RIPS) can determine distance differences between pairs of motes in a wireless sensor network. Such measurements allow one to localise motes in the network when the locations of at least three motes are known. In the 2-dimensional case, a RIPS trilateration approach, which we describe in this paper, appears to be the most efficient way of localising all motes with respect to a set of known anchors. An important issue associated with this method is the sensitivity of the trilateration to RIPS measurement noise. In this paper we present an analytic study of the impact of RIPS measurement noise on the localisation error, the results of which can be used as a guide for choosing RIPS measurements that minimise the localisation error. A simulated example demonstrates the underlying idea, and its effectiveness.