Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Double‐Shelled CoMn2O4 Hollow Microcubes as High‐Capacity Anodes for Lithium‐Ion Batteries

IO N Hollow micro-/nanostructures with controlled size, shape, composition, and internal structure have attracted intense interest in recent years, mainly due to their promising use in many applications such as nanoreactors, drug delivery, gas sensors, and energy storage and conversion. [1–3] More recently, efforts have been dedicated to the rational design of complex hollow structures, such as multishelled hollow structures and yolkshell structures,[4–6] as these complex structures are expected to offer more handles to tailor the properties for different applications such as drug delivery,[7,8] photocatalysis,[9–11] dye sensitized solar cells,[12] gas sensors,[13,14] lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). [15–19] A general approach for the fabrication of multishelled hollow structures involves the employment of sacrificial templates, either hard ones, such as monodispersed polymer,[20] silica,[21,22] carbon,[14] and metal oxide nanoparticles,[23] or soft ones, such as micelles. [18,24] For example, Yang et al.[20] prepared double-shelled metal oxides by templating against commercially available hollow latex spheres; Lou et al.[21,22] reported the fabrication of double-shelled SnO2 hollow spheres and “nanococoons” based on shell-by-shell deposition of SnO2 on spherical and nonspherical silica; Lai et al.[14] fabricated multishelled Fe2O3 hollow spheres with controlled shell numbers by employing carbonaceous microspheres as sacrificial templates; Xu et al.[24] reported the synthesis of multishelled Cu2O hollow spheres via a multilamellar-micelle templating route. However, in most cases, the resulting hollow structures are spherical in shape and the materials are simple binary oxides. The number of reports on multishelled nonspherical hollow structures is significantly limited due to the paucity of nonspherical templates and difficulty in forming uniform coatings, especially multilayered coatings, around high-curvature surfaces. [21,23] Herein, we report the synthesis of double-shelled CoMn2O4 hollow microcubes via a facile co-precipitation and annealing
A Survey of Image Compression Methods

research in the field of image compression is driven by the ever increasing bandwidth requirements for transmission of images in computer, mobile and internet environments. In this context, the survey summarizes the major image compression methods spanning across lossy and lossless image compression techniques and explains how the JPEG and JPEG2000 image compression techniques are distinct from each other. Further, the paper concludes that still research possibilities exist in this field to explore efficient image compression. General Terms Image compression, Huffman coding, low bit rate transmission.
RDX Induces Aberrant Expression of MicroRNAs in Mouse Brain and Liver

Background Although microRNAs (miRNAs) have been found to play an important role in many biological and metabolic processes, their functions in animal response to environmental toxicant exposure are largely unknown. Objectives We used hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX), a common environmental contaminant, as a toxicant stressor to investigate toxicant-induced changes in miRNA expression in B6C3F1 mice and the potential mechanism of RDX-induced toxic action. Methods B6C3F1 mice were fed diets with or without 5 mg/kg RDX for 28 days. After the feeding trials, we isolated RNAs from both brain and liver tissues and analyzed the expression profiles of 567 known mouse miRNAs using microarray and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction technologies. Results RDX exposure induced significant changes in miRNA expression profiles. A total of 113 miRNAs, belonging to 75 families, showed significantly altered expression patterns after RDX exposure. Of the 113 miRNAs, 10 were significantly up-regulated and 3 were significantly down-regulated (p < 0.01) in both mouse brain and liver. Many miRNAs had tissue-specific responses to RDX exposure. Specifically, expression of seven miRNAs was up-regulated in the brain but down-regulated in the liver or up-regulated in the liver but down-regulated in the brain (p < 0.01). Many aberrantly expressed miRNAs were related to various cancers, toxicant-metabolizing enzymes, and neurotoxicity. We found a significant up-regulation of oncogenic miRNAs and a significant down-regulation of tumor-suppressing miRNAs, which included let-7, miR-17-92, miR-10b, miR-15, miR-16, miR-26, and miR-181. Conclusions Environmental toxicant exposure alters the expression of a suite of miRNAs.
Omegabot: Crawling robot inspired by Ascotis Selenaria

In this paper, we describe the design, fabrication processes, and control of a new biomimetic robot inspired by the inchworm, Ascotis Selenaria. The robot, called Omegabot, is named after the omega (Ω) shape of the crawling motion of the inchworm. This type of inchworm can travel approximately its body length per stroke along rough surfaces, leaf edges, and boughs of trees. The robot is built with smart composite microstructures (SCM), a fabrication method that uses laser micromachining to cut composites and assemble them into micro structures. We suggest a special pattern design for SCM to generate a two-dimensional turning motion, crawling motion, and a proleg design for climbing a tree. The robot is actuated with a shape memory alloy coil actuator activated by a PWM (pulse-width modulation) signal control electric current. As a result, Omegabot can crawl, turn, and grip a tree bough. This robot can be used for search and rescue or gathering useful information in an area where only small-scale robots can penetrate.
An HBAC-based approximation for IBAC programs

Access control models are adopted in modern component-based systems, such as Java, in order to protect critical resources and operations. One of the last models presented, Information-Based Access Control model (IBAC), has been proposed to solve the excessive restrictiveness of the History-Based Access Control model (HBAC), which may incorrectly prevent the execution of security-sensitive operations that should be executed. However, the semantics of the IBAC model are relatively recent and complicated to be easily implemented in a real environment. In this paper we informally propose an algorithm to approximate a subset of IBAC programs into a program that uses HBAC semantics. Accomplishing this, an IBAC program from the subset we defined could be implemented in an environment that is supported by HBAC.
Multi-operand Decimal Adder Trees for FPGAs

The research and development of hardware designs for decimal arithmetic is currently going under an intense activity. For most part, the methods proposed to implement fixed and floating point operations are intended for ASIC designs. Thus, a direct mapping or adaptation of these techniques into a FPGA could be far from an optimal solution. Only a few studies have considered new methods more suitable for FPGA implementations. A basic operation that has not received enough attention in this context is multi-operand BCD addition. For example, it is of interest for low latency implementations of decimal fixed and floating point multipliers and decimal fused multiply-add units. We have explored the most representative proposals for multi-operand BCD addition and found that the resultant implementations in FPGAs are still very inefficient in terms of both area and latency when compared to their binary counterparts. In this paper we present a new method for fast and efficient implementation of multi-operand BCD addition in current FPGA devices. In particular, our proposal maps quite well into the slice structure of the Xilinx Virtex-5/Virtex-6 families and it is highly pipelineable. The synthesis results for a Virtex-6 device indicate that our implementations halve the area and latency of previous proposals, presenting area and delay figures close to those of optimal binary adder trees.
Animal Models of Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a heterogeneous group of disorders that progressively lead to blindness due to loss of retinal ganglion cells and damage to the optic nerve. It is a leading cause of blindness and visual impairment worldwide. Although research in the field of glaucoma is substantial, the pathophysiologic mechanisms causing the disease are not completely understood. A wide variety of animal models have been used to study glaucoma. These include monkeys, dogs, cats, rodents, and several other species. Although these models have provided valuable information about the disease, there is still no ideal model for studying glaucoma due to its complexity. In this paper we present a summary of most of the animal models that have been developed and used for the study of the different types of glaucoma, the strengths and limitations associated with each species use, and some potential criteria to develop a suitable model.
Effect of feature selection method on the performance of focused crawlers—A case study on traditional and accelerated focused crawlers

This paper mainly focuses on the effect of feature selection method on the performance of Traditional Focused Crawler (TFC) and Accelerated Focused Crawler (AFC). Information retrieval methods like querying a search engine, usage of web catalog and browsing may not satisfy the information needs of all the users. When information requirement is about a specific topic, focused crawlers will complement these methods. The aim of these crawlers is to download web pages that are highly relevant to the pre-defined topic. Naive Bayesian classifier is used to guide the crawlers by rating the web page before it is downloaded. For this analysis topics to be crawled are represented using a set of relevant documents. The features used by Bayesian Classifier in construction of the model are collected from the document corpus using Document Frequency and Information Gain feature selection methods. Performance of both the crawlers is evaluated when 500 features are selected using Document Frequency and Information Gain feature selection methods. Accelerated Focused Crawler's performance is evaluated for varied number of features gathered using both the feature selection methods. Target pages recall and Target description recall are used in evaluating the crawlers.
Conscious Sedation and Awake Fiberoptic Intubation in a Patient with Difficult Mask Ventilation—A Case Report

Since maxillofacial malignancy is a common cause of facial defects and disfigurement of the face that may make fitting of a mask difficult and cause air leakage from the side, thus making mask ventilation difficult. In addition, distorted anatomy of the airway and base of the skull in such patients may cause difficult intubation (DI). We experienced a case with a huge facial defect due to maxillary carcinoma, in which difficult mask ventilation (DMV) and DI were predicted. After evaluation by three-dimensional airway computed tomography, the airway was secured with conscious sedation using dexmedetomidine, and awake fiberoptic intubation was safely performed. Three-dimensional airway computed tomography seems to be a good tool for successful intubation when DMV and DI are predicted.
Ghost-in-ZigBee: Energy Depletion Attack on ZigBee-Based Wireless Networks

ZigBee has been widely recognized as an important enabling technique for Internet of Things (IoT). However, the ZigBee nodes are normally resource-limited, making the network susceptible to a variety of security threats. This paper closely investigates a severe attack on ZigBee networks termed as ghost, which leverages the underlying vulnerabilities of the IEEE 802.15. 4 security suites to deplete the energy of the nodes. We show that the impact of ghost is very large and that it can facilitate a variety of threats including denial of service and replay attacks. We highlight that merely deploying a standard suite of advanced security techniques does not necessarily guarantee improved security, but instead might be leveraged by adversaries to cause severe disruption in the network. We propose several recommendations on how to localize and withstand the ghost and other related attacks in ZigBee networks. Extensive simulations are provided to show the impact of the ghost and the performance of the proposed recommendations. Moreover, physical experiments also have been conducted and the observations confirm the severity of the impact by the ghost attack. We believe that the presented work will aid the researchers to improve the security of ZigBee further.
The Japanese space gravitational wave antenna—DECIGO

DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO) is the future Japanese space gravitational wave antenna. It aims at detecting various kinds of gravitational waves between 1 mHz and 100 Hz frequently enough to open a new window of observation for gravitational wave astronomy. The pre-conceptual design of DECIGO consists of three drag-free satellites, 1000 km apart from each other, whose relative displacements are measured by a Fabry–Perot Michelson interferometer. We plan to launch DECIGO in 2024 after a long and intense development phase, including two pathfinder missions for verification of required technologies.
Sparsity and concentration measures for optimum quadratic time-frequency distributions of Doppler signals

Reduced interference distributions are well-known methods used for quadratic time-frequency signal analysis of nonstationary data including Doppler signals. These distributions use kernels that determine the quality of a time-frequency signal representation. Optimal reduced interference distribution kernels are determined based on the employed design criteria, including sparsity and concentration measures that are applied in the time-frequency domain. This paper demonstrates that sparsity, compared to common concentration measures, satisfies desirable performance attributes and, as such, is considered effective in revealing the signal local frequency structure and its time-frequency signature, including the signal instantaneous frequency.
Double U slot patch antenna

In this paper, we aim to design to simulate `double u slot patch antenna'. Our simulation and experimental investigation aimed to understand the behavior of the two U-slots. It can be used in WiMAX compliant communication equipments. As a result of all changes and on the geometry of the antenna, we had -17.38 dB input match and 5.13 dB gain at 5.47 GHz.
Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

Although chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) was one of the first two entities in which CAR-T cells were evaluated, it has not yet arrived in the clinical routine. Since the landmark study by Porter et al. (2011), only six CLL-specific clinical trials have been published, altogether comprising no more than 155 patients (Porter et al. 2015; Gill et al. 2018; Turtle et al. 2017; Gauthier et al. 2020; Siddiqi et al. 2020; Wierda et al. 2020; Frey et al. 2020). All six of these studies investigated CD19-directed CAR-T constructs in heavily pretreated patients, mostly having failed BTKi+/− venetoclax therapy. Despite overall response rates of 60–95%, including MRD clearance in a large proportion of patients, the CR rates appear to be relatively low, and only a few durable responses have been reported in patients achieving a CR (Porter et al. 2015; Frey et al. 2020; Cappell et al. 2020). While toxicity includes 5–20% grade 3 cytokine release syndrome and 5–25% grade 3 neurotoxicity and appears manageable, long-term efficacy remains an unresolved issue. CLL-specific efficacy barriers for CD19 CAR-T cells could include a reduced capacity for sustained T cell expansion in extensively pretreated elderly CLL patients (Lemal and Tournilhac 2019), along with impaired T cell motility, impaired T cell mitochondrial fitness, and T cell exhaustion (Bair and Porter 2019). Concurrent use of ibrutinib might reduce the CRS rate and severity (Gauthier et al. 2020; Gill et al. 2018; Wierda et al. 2020) without impairing CAR-T cell expansion.
Study of the Activity and Possible Mechanism of Action of a Reversible Inhibitor of Recombinant Human KAT-2: A Promising Lead in Neurodegenerative and Cognitive Disorders

Abnormal levels of kynurenic acid (KYNA) in the human brain are believed to be connected to several central nervous system (CNS) diseases, therefore compounds which affect the production of this crucial metabolite are of interest in CNS drug development. The majority of KYNA production is accounted for by kynurenine aminotransferase-2 (KAT-2) in the mammalian brain; hence this enzyme is one of the most interesting targets with which to modulate KYNA levels. Recently developed human KAT-2 inhibitors with high potencies are known to irreversibly bind to the enzyme cofactor, pyridoxal-5′-phosphate (PLP), which may lead to severe side effects due to the abundance of PLP-dependent enzymes. In this study, we report a reversible and competitive inhibitor of KAT-2. Its inhibitory activities were examined using HPLC and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and compare favorably with other recently reported KAT-2 inhibitors. Our inhibitor, NS-1502, demonstrates suitable inhibitory activity, almost 10 times more potent than the known reversible KAT-2, (S)-ESBA.
Learning Robot Control Using a Hierarchical SOM-Based Encoding

Hierarchical representations and modeling of sensorimotor observations is a fundamental approach for the development of scalable robot control strategies. Previously, we introduced the novel hierarchical self-organizing map-based encoding algorithm (HSOME) that is based on a computational model of infant cognition. Each layer is a temporally augmented self-organizing map and every node updates a decaying activation value. The bottom level encodes sensorimotor instances while their temporal associations are hierarchically built on the layers above. In the past, HSOME has shown to support hierarchical encoding of sequential sensor-actuator observations both in abstract domains and real humanoid robots. Two novel features are presented here starting with the novel skill acquisition in the complex domain of learning a double tap tactile gesture between two humanoid robots. During reproduction, the robot can either perform a double tap or prioritize to receive a higher reward by performing a single tap instead. Second, HSOME has been extended to recall past observations and reproduce rhythmic patterns in the absence of input relevant to the joints by priming initially the reproduction of specific skills with an input. We also demonstrate in simulation how a complex behavior emerges from the automatic reuse of distinct oscillatory swimming demonstrations of a robotic salamander.
Inhibition of Bone Morphogenic Protein 4 Restores Endothelial Function in db/db Diabetic Mice

Objective— Bone morphogenic protein 4 (BMP4) is involved in the development of endothelial dysfunction in hypertension. This study investigated whether the inhibition of BMP4 signaling improves endothelial function in db/db diabetic mice. Approach and Results— Male db/db mice were treated with noggin via osmotic pump infusion (1 µg/[h·kg–1]) for 2 weeks. Adenovirus BMP4-short hairpin RNA was introduced via tail vein injection at a dosage of 109 pfu/mouse and its effects were examined 7 days after. Vasoreactivity was studied on wire and pressure myograph. Both noggin treatment and adenovirus BMP4-short hairpin RNA transduction improved endothelium-dependent relaxations in aortae and flow-mediated dilatation in mesenteric arteries of db/db mice. Ex vivo treatment with BMP4 inhibitors and adenovirus BMP4-short hairpin RNA rescued the impaired endothelium-dependent relaxations in db/db mouse aortae and reduced reactive oxygen species overproduction determined by dihydroethidium staining, CM-H2DCFDA fluorescence imaging, and chemiluminescence assay in db/db mouse aortae, and also in ex vivo cultured C57BL/6 mouse aortae or primary mouse aortic endothelial cells treated with high glucose. Likewise, activin receptor–like kinase 3 silencing by short hairpin RNA lentivirus improved endothelium-dependent relaxations in db/db mouse aortae accompanied by reactive oxygen species inhibition in endothelial cells. In addition, noggin reduced BMP4 upregulation in high-glucose–treated endothelial cells and in C57BL/6 mouse aortae and in aortae from db/db mice. Conclusions— Inhibition of BMP4/activin receptor–like kinase 3/reactive oxygen species signaling improved endothelial function in diabetic mice through limiting oxidative stress in endothelium. Inhibiting BMP4 cascade can become another potential therapeutic strategy against diabetic vascular dysfunction.
EFFECT OF DELAYED NITROGEN FERTILIZATION ON MAIZE (ZEA MAYS L.) GRAIN YIELDS AND NITROGEN USE EFFICIENCY

Maize grain yield potential can be estimated mid-season using NDVI at the V8 growth stage, thus affording delayed sidedress nitrogen (N) application. Several combinations of preplant and sidedress N at various growth stages were evaluated. Maize grain yields were maximized with 90 kg N ha-1 preplant followed by 90 kg N ha-1 sidedress at V6 or V10 (8 of 9 site-years). Delaying N application until V10 growth stage when preplant N was applied did not result in lower yields. Mid-season N supplies fertilizer at the time when crop need and N uptake are at a maximum, and thus facilitates more efficient N use. Lowest nitrogen use efficiencies (NUE) were observed with higher N rates and when all N was applied preplant. Highest NUE's were achieved with 45 kg N ha-1 preplant followed by 45 kg N ha-1 sidedress applied at V6 growth stage (8 of 9 site-years) and at V10 (6 of 9 site-years).
Genetic Analysis of Diversity within a Chinese Local Sugarcane Germplasm Based on Start Codon Targeted Polymorphism

In-depth information on sugarcane germplasm is the basis for its conservation and utilization. Data on sugarcane molecular markers are limited for the Chinese sugarcane germplasm collections. In the present study, 20 start codon targeted (SCoT) marker primers were designed to assess the genetic diversity among 107 sugarcane accessions within a local sugarcane germplasm collection. These primers amplified 176 DNA fragments, of which 163 were polymorphic (92.85%). Polymorphic information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.783 to 0.907 with a mean of 0.861. Unweighted pair group method of arithmetic averages (UPGMA) cluster analysis of the SCoT marker data divided the 107 sugarcane accessions into six clusters at 0.674 genetic similarity coefficient level. Relatively abundant genetic diversity was observed among ROC22, ROC16, and ROC10, which occupied about 80% of the total sugarcane acreage in China, indicating their potential breeding value on Mainland China. Principal component analysis (PCA) partitioned the 107 sugarcane accessions into two major groups, the Domestic Group and the Foreign Introduction Group. Each group was further divided based on institutions, where the sugarcane accessions were originally developed. The knowledge of genetic diversity among the local sugarcane germplasm provided foundation data for managing sugarcane germplasm, including construction of a core collection and regional variety distribution and subrogation.
Genetic assignment of multiple E2 gene products in bovine papillomavirus-transformed cells

The E2 open reading frame of bovine papillomavirus type 1 has been shown genetically to encode at least three transcriptional regulatory factors, and three E2 specific proteins have been recently identified in virally transformed rodent cells. In this study, the genes encoding these E2 specific proteins have been determined. The 48-kilodalton (kDa) protein was identified as the product of a full-length E2 open reading frame cDNA, which confirmed that this polypeptide is the E2 transactivator. The 31-kDa E2 protein species, which is the most abundant E2 specific polypeptide, was identified by analysis of both bovine papillomavirus type 1 mutants and cDNAs to be the previously identified E2 transcriptional repressor, E2-TR, which results from translation initiation at an internal E2 ATG codon. The smallest E2 protein species, the 28-kDa polypeptide, was identified as the product of the E8/E2 fusion gene which results from translation of a spliced mRNA species.