Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Carbon nanotube actuators based on solid electrolytes

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) show interesting properties with respect to applications in actuator technologies. Mats made of randomly oriented CNTs (so-called buckypapers), when in contact with an electrolyte, require relatively low applied potentials (few volts) for exhibiting dimensional changes. This actuation capability combined with the mechanical properties of an individual tube and the high electrical conductivity makes CNTs an attractive material. This direct conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy through a material response is crucial actuator based applications like robotics, microscopic pumps, optical displays, optical fiber switches, or medical prosthetic devices. In order to achieve reliable CNT actuator devices, the two main goals of the thesis are the following: The first goal is the characterization of macroscopic carbon nanotube structures. Material properties such as Young’s modulus, tensile strength, electrical conductivity, electrical capacitance, specific surface area and morphology are investigated and put in relation to the length (in-plane) actuation performance in a liquid aqueous electrolyte (1M NaCl). A dynamic mechanical analyzer is adapted for actuation strain measurements on the samples under various tensile prestress levels. The Young’s modulus of the CNT structure was found to have a significant impact on actuation performance. The second goal is the replacement of the liquid electrolyte by a solid one in order to develop a self-supported and non-volatile CNT actuator device. For this purpose, two gel electrolytes, based on ionic liquid (IL) and a polymer matrix are investigated. The gels differ in the nature of the polymers: The cross-linked HEMA is a thermoset requiring no solvent for processing of the gel electrolyte, whereas the linear PVdF-HFP is a thermoplastic and processed from solution. For both gel electrolytes, film processing for obtaining manageable electrolyte membranes is presented. Membranes are characterized using Differential Scanning Calometry (DSC), Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). The manufacturing process of in-plane actuator devices is presented and their electromechanical actuation ability characterized. The actuation strain measurements under various tensile prestress levels have shown that the obtained maximum strains are comparable for both electrolyte types, aqueous liquid and gelled ionic liquid, respectively. Finally, two other gel electrolyte actuator designs are presented, namely a stacked (out-of-plane) and a membrane actuator (in-plane). Only actuators based on the in-plane actuation could be made to perform reproducibly whereas the stacked out-of-plane actuators showed erratic behavior due to undesired bending.
User-Friendly Text Prediction For Translators

Text prediction is a form of interactive machine translation that is well suited to skilled translators. In principle it can assist in the production of a target text with minimal disruption to a translator's normal routine. However, recent evaluations of a prototype prediction system showed that it significantly decreased the productivity of most translators who used it. In this paper, we analyze the reasons for this and propose a solution which consists in seeking predictions that maximize the expected benefit to the translator, rather than just trying to anticipate some amount of upcoming text. Using a model of a "typical translator" constructed from data collected in the evaluations of the prediction prototype, we show that this approach has the potential to turn text prediction into a help rather than a hindrance to a translator.
Nine μg intradermal influenza vaccine and 15 μg intramuscular influenza vaccine induce similar cellular and humoral immune responses in adults

Intanza® 9 μg (Sanofi Pasteur), a trivalent split-virion vaccine administered by intradermal (ID) injection, was approved in Europe in 2009 for the prevention of seasonal influenza in adults 18 to 59 years. Here, we examined the immune responses induced in adults by the ID 9 μg vaccine and the standard trivalent intramuscular (IM) vaccine (Vaxigrip® 15 μg, Sanofi Pasteur). This trial was a randomized, controlled, single-center, open-label study in healthy adults 18 to 40 years of age during the 2007/8 influenza season. Subjects received a single vaccination with the ID 9 μg (n = 38) or IM 15 μg (n = 42) vaccine. Serum, saliva, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells were collected up to 180 days post-vaccination. Geometric mean hemagglutination inhibition titers, seroprotection rates, seroconversion rates, and pre-vaccination-to-post-vaccination ratios of geometric mean hemagglutination inhibition titers did not differ between the two vaccines. Compared with pre-vaccination, the vaccines induced similar increases in vaccine-specific circulating B cells at day 7 but did not induce significant increases in vaccine-specific memory B cells at day 180. Cell-mediated immunity to all three vaccine strains, measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, was high at baseline and not increased by either vaccine. Neither vaccine induced a mucosal immune response. These results show that the humoral and cellular immune responses to the ID 9 μg vaccine are similar to those to the standard IM 15 μg vaccine.
Meso-scale Flight and Miniature Rotorcraft Development

This paper summarizes the initial development of a very small-scale rotorcraft that flies on its own power and carries sensors for atmospheric research or planetary exploration. Initial devices are electrically powered, ranging in size from 2 to 15 cm, and have involved challenges in aerodynamics, control, and manufacturing. Many interesting scaling issues arise as one shrinks a flight vehicle down to this size. Certain scaling attributes are favorable, such as the increased strength and rigidity of structures at small scales, while others, such as aerodynamics, represent significant challenges. This paper summarizes the aerodynamic design of the rotor system, and approaches to fabrication, control, and power systems. Results of prototype tests suggest that the concept can be successfully produced and that the design methodology is appropriate, despite the insect-like scale of the rotors. Results of recent experiments with a larger version of this concept intended to fly on Mars are also described.
1.2-V fully differential OTA-C lowpass filter based on bulk-driven MOS transistors

An OTA-C filter implementation suited to low-voltage operation is presented. An operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) based on a bulk-driven input stage with enhanced DC gain and bandwidth was designed and included in a 1.2-V tunable fully differential second-order OTA-C lowpass filter. Experimental results, obtained in standard 0.35-µm CMOS technology, showed a dynamic range around 70 dB with a total power consumption of 382 µW for a filter cutoff frequency of 3 MHz.
In Silico Prediction and Analysis of Caenorhabditis EF-hand Containing Proteins

Calcium (Ca+2) is a ubiquitous messenger in eukaryotes including Caenorhabditis. Ca+2-mediated signalling processes are usually carried out through well characterized proteins like calmodulin (CaM) and other Ca+2 binding proteins (CaBP). These proteins interact with different targets and activate it by bringing conformational changes. Majority of the EF-hand proteins in Caenorhabditis contain Ca+2 binding motifs. Here, we have performed homology modelling of CaM-like proteins using the crystal structure of Drosophila melanogaster CaM as a template. Molecular docking was applied to explore the binding mechanism of CaM-like proteins and IQ1 motif which is a ∼25 residues and conform to the consensus sequence (I, L, V)QXXXRXXXX(R,K) to serve as a binding site for different EF hand proteins. We made an attempt to identify all the EF-hand (a helix-loop-helix structure characterized by a 12 residues loop sequence involved in metal coordination) containing proteins and their Ca+2 binding affinity in Caenorhabditis by analysing the complete genome sequence. Docking studies revealed that F165, F169, L29, E33, F44, L57, M61, M96, M97, M108, G65, V115, F93, N104, E144 of CaM-like protein is involved in the interaction with IQ1 motif. A maximum of 170 EF-hand proteins and 39 non-EF-hand proteins with Ca+2/metal binding motif were identified. Diverse proteins including enzyme, transcription, translation and large number of unknown proteins have one or more putative EF-hands. Phylogenetic analysis revealed seven major classes/groups that contain some families of proteins. Various domains that we identified in the EF-hand proteins (uncharacterized) would help in elucidating their functions. It is the first report of its kind where calcium binding loop sequences of EF-hand proteins were analyzed to decipher their calcium affinities. Variation in Ca+2-binding affinity of EF-hand CaBP could be further used to study the behaviour of these proteins. Our analyses postulated that Ca+2 is likely to be key player in Caenorhabditis cell signalling.
Developing Age and Gender Predictive Lexica over Social Media

Demographic lexica have potential for widespread use in social science, economic, and business applications. We derive predictive lexica (words and weights) for age and gender using regression and classification models from word usage in Facebook, blog, and Twitter data with associated demographic labels. The lexica, made publicly available,1 achieved state-of-the-art accuracy in language based age and gender prediction over Facebook and Twitter, and were evaluated for generalization across social media genres as well as in limited message situations.
RESISTIVITY CHARACTERISTICS OF CONCRETE.

A series of experiments has been carried out to determine the electrical resistivity characteristics of concrete of different mixes and neat cement pastes. Experimental techniques have been developed which allow accurate measurements to be made with relative ease. The effects of ambient temperature on the value of resistivity determined have been quantified over a practical working range. The effects of temporal variations of the resistivity of the concrete have been established over periods of more than 100 days, i.e. to a point where the rate of change of resistivity has become negligibly small. The electrical resistivity of concrete has been shown to be dependent on mix proportions and water/cement ratio. For a particular mix an increase in water/cement ratio means a decrease in resistivity, i.e. as the strength decreases the resistivity decreases. The resistivity of concrete is dependent on ambient temperature and relationships are given which can account for this variation. As the electrical resistivity of aggregate can be regarded as infinite compared with the resistivity of the paste, the resistivity of a concrete mix is dependent almost entirely on the resistivity of the pastewithin the concrete. The electrical resistivity of concreteis directly related to the rate of hydration of the cement paste within the concrete. This is shown by the fact that the experimental graphs for concrete follow the same trend as those for neat cement pastes, the only difference being that the curves for concrete are displaced upwards. (a) (TRRL)
Regulation of programmed cell death by plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1)

Summary Elevated levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) are associated with poor prognosis in cancer. An explanation to the elevated levels of PAI-1 could be a protective response to the increased proteolytic activity, caused by elevated levels of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) observed in tumours; however, several lines of evidence suggest that PAI-1 may contribute directly to the pathology of the disease. PAI-1 has been reported to have an effect on most of the basic cellular processes including cell adhesion, cell migration, cell invasion, and cell proliferation and increasing numbers of reports suggest that PAI-1 also can regulate programmed cell death (PCD) in cancer cells and normal cells.A number of reports suggest that PAI-1 can inhibit PCD through its pro-adhesive/anti-proteolytic property whereas other reports suggest that PAI-1 induces PCD through its anti-adhesive property.Furthermore,it has been suggested that PAI-1 can either induce or inhibit PCD though activation of cell signalling pathways.This review will focus on the regulation of programmed cell death by PAI-1 in both normal cells and cancer cells.
ARTM vs. LDA: an SVD Extension Case Study

In this work, we compare two extensions of two different topic models for the same problem of recommending full-text items: previously developed SVD-LDA and its counterpart SVD-ARTM based on additive regularization. We show that ARTM naturally leads to the inference algorithm that has to be painstakingly developed for LDA.
Early detection and continuous monitoring of dissolved key fault gases in transformers and shunt reactors

Insulation breakdown in oil-filled equipment will produce gases. These gases will dissolve in the oil. The early detection and continuous monitoring of the key fault gases dissolved in oil provide a reliable warning of incipient and developing failure conditions. This paper reviews the basics and dynamics of failure evolution, the impact on the insulation system, the characterization of the defects using dissolved gas analysis, the use of a fuel cell based technology to detect and monitor fault gases in oil, as well as the economics of equipment condition monitoring. Reference is made to current industry practices and documented results.
A New Member of the Escherichia coli fad Regulon: Transcriptional Regulation of fadM (ybaW)

ABSTRACT Recently, Nie and coworkers (L. Nie, Y. Ren, A. Janakiraman, S. Smith, and H. Schulz, Biochemistry 47:9618-9626, 2008) reported a new Escherichia coli thioesterase encoded by the ybaW gene that cleaves the thioester bonds of inhibitory acyl-coenzyme A (CoA) by-products generated during β-oxidation of certain unsaturated fatty acids. These authors suggested that ybaW expression might be regulated by FadR, the repressor of the fad (fatty acid degradation) regulon. We report mapping of the ybaW promoter and show that ybaW transcription responded to FadR in vivo. Moreover, purified FadR bound to a DNA sequence similar to the canonical FadR binding site located upstream of the ybaW coding sequence and was released from the promoter upon the addition of long-chain acyl-CoA thioesters. We therefore propose the designation fadM in place of ybaW. Although FadR regulation of fadM expression had the pattern typical of fad regulon genes, its modulation by the cyclic AMP (cAMP) receptor protein-cAMP complex (CRP-cAMP) global regulator was the opposite of that normally observed. CRP-cAMP generally acts as an activator of fad gene expression, consistent with the low status of fatty acids as carbon sources. However, glucose growth stimulated fadM expression relative to acetate growth, as did inactivation of CRP-cAMP, indicating that the complex acts as a negative regulator of this gene. The stimulation of fadM expression seen upon deletion of the gene encoding adenylate cyclase (Δcya) was reversed by supplementation of the growth medium with cAMP. Nie and coworkers also reported that growth on a conjugated linoleic acid isomer yields much higher levels of FadM thioesterase activity than does growth on oleic acid. In contrast, we found that the conjugated linoleic acid isomer was only a weak inducer of fadM expression. Although the gene is not essential for growth, the high basal level of fadM expression under diverse growth conditions suggests that the encoded thioesterase has functions in addition to β-oxidation.
Visual Scene Representations: Scaling and Occlusion in Convolutional Architectures

We study the structure of representations, defined as approximations of minimal sufficient statistics that are maximal invariants to nuisance factors, for visual data subject to scaling and occlusion of line-of-sight. We derive analytical expressions for such representations and show that, under certain restrictive assumptions, they are related to features commonly in use in the computer vision community. This link highlights the condition tacitly assumed by these descriptors, and also suggests ways to improve and generalize them. This new interpretation draws connections to the classical theories of sampling, hypothesis testing and group invariance.
Efficient flame retardant of mercerized cotton through cross-linking with citric acid and ZnO nanoparticles optimized by RSM models

This research attempts to resolve high flammability of mercerized cotton (MC) through cross-linking with sodium hypophosphite (SHP) catalyst and citric acid (CA) cross-linking agent and then post-treated with ZnO nanoparticles. However, concurrent optimization of flame retardant and cross-linking treatment of MC fabrics with SHP/CA/ZnO nanocomposite were not been reported. ZnO nanoparticles were stabilized on the surface of MC fabric using CA cross-linking agents. Appropriate models were obtained based on Design of Expert software in order to create optimum physical properties. The roles of SHP, CA, and nanoZnO concentrations were optimized in flame retardant and cross-linking properties of MC fabric using response surface methodology. Also, absorbance and transmission spectra analyses (200–400 nm) and scanning electron microscopy were employed to confirm ZnO nanoparticles on the MC fabrics. The results revealed the significant and synergism influence of SHP, CA, and nanoZnO in enhancing the flame retardant property of cross-linked MC fabrics.
Sina Microblog: An Information-Driven Online Social Network

Online social network is becoming more and more popular these days. Some literatures about it have been published, but few papers talk about Sin a Weibo, which is the most prevalent micro log in China and has more than 100 million users. The goal of this paper is to study the topological characteristics of Sin a Weibo and show what people use Sin a Weibo for. There are two main researches in micro logging system: (i) How is the overlay formed, and (ii) How does the information transmit. We crawled the Sin a micro log for one month and got 1.12 million user profiles. We mainly study the topology of Sin a micro log, and find that: (1) the overlay of Weibo is dynamic, (2) most of the links between users are one-way, (3) there is a core network in Sin a Weibo, and (4) the radius of Sine Weibo is very short, which make it different from human social networks and other online social networks. Finally, we classify online social networks into two types according to our results. To the best of our knowledge this work is the first quantitative study on the topological characteristics of Sin a Weibo, and the results can make people know Sin a Weibo clearly.
Method for optical-flow-based precision missile guidance

A new precision guidance law is presented for three-dimensional intercepts against a moving target. In contrast to previously published guidance laws, it does not require knowledge of the range to the target. This makes it appropriate for use on platforms which have an imaging device, such as a video camera, as a primary sensor. We prove that with idealized dynamic model, the guidance law results in zero miss distance, and a formula is given for impact angle error which tends to zero as does target speed, making this method particularly suitable against slow moving targets. Computer simulations are used to test the law with a more realistic model, with a video camera and optical-flow algorithm providing target information. It is shown to perform well compared with another law from the literature, despite requiring less information.
J. Bender Et Al. / Interactive Rigid Body Simulation

z i+1 = z i + 1 6 (k 1 + 2 k 2 + 2 k 3 + k 4). This method can also be combined with adaptive time-stepping [PFTV92, Mir96b]. The goal of using an adaptive time step size is to achieve a predefined accuracy ε with a minimal computational effort. For the determination of the current step size, the truncation error of a step must be estimated. One way to do this is using the embedded Runge-Kutta formulas introduced by Fehlberg. Cash and Karp [CK90] use the general form of a fifth-order Runge-Kutta formula
Three-Dimensional Observations of H2 Emission around Sgr A East. I. Structure in the Central 10 pc of Our Galaxy

We have obtained velocity-resolved spectra of the H2 1-0 S(1) (λ = 2.1218 μm) emission line at 2″ angular resolution (or ~0.08 pc spatial resolution) in four regions within the central 10 pc of the Galaxy where the supernova-like remnant Sgr A East is colliding with molecular clouds. To investigate the kinematic, physical, and positional relationships between the important gaseous components in the center, we compared the H2 data cube with previously published NH3 data. The projected interaction boundary of Sgr A East is determined to be an ellipse with its center offset ~1.5 pc from Sgr A* and dimensions of 10.8 pc × 7.6 pc . This H2 boundary is larger than the synchrotron emission shell but consistent with the dust ring, which is believed to trace the shock front of Sgr A East. Since Sgr A East is driving shocks into its nearby molecular clouds, we can determine their positional relationships using the shock directions as indicators. As a result, we suggest a revised model for the three-dimensional structure of the central 10 pc. The actual contact between Sgr A East and all of the surrounding molecular material, including the circumnuclear disk and the southern streamer, makes the hypothesis of infall into the nucleus and feeding of Sgr A* very likely.
Realization of SCM and CRM by Using RFID-captured Consumer Behavior Information

Physical store retailers are facing a tougher situation than ever. In order to tackle this tough situation, they need not only to reduce cost by effectively executing SCM but also to introduce measures to increase profit like CRM. They are effective by themselves, but if they are combined the retailers can enjoy more benefits from these practices. However, there is no good application that realize both two business practices together. In this study, assuming that RFID system captures consumer behavior information on the sales floor, we propose an application, in which discount prices are offered to FSP member customers based on their loyalty level and the discount prices are computed to achieve a target inventory turnover rate. To realize this application, we also propose two algorithms that effectively control an inventory turnover rate at the same time reward FSP customers based on their loyalty status. For evaluation, we develop a prototype system of the application for a proof of concept and run a numerical study to show the validity of the proposed algorithms.
Channel-driven Global Routing With Consistent Placement * (extended Abstract For ICCAD '94)

A global router with its consistent placer is proposed which aims to control wire-densities of channels. The routing order of nets and their routes are decided according to the channel which is predicted to have the maximum wire-density. The placer distributes the nets evenly with respect to the virtual length (half perimeter of the bounding box). Interesting features included are the interactive dynamic test to decide the form of predicting functions and the admissible region to consider the routing resources in placement stage. Experiments reveal some interesting phenomena that smaller maximum wire-density is attained in spite of comparable total wire-density and that smaller maximum wire-length in spite of larger total wire-length.