Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Studies on Woven Carbon/Vinyl Ester Composites: Environmental Effects, Joining and Hybridization

The incessant demand for fiber reinforced polymer composites, or FRPCs, in industrial applications which desire materials that possess high strength-to-weight ratios, generates a theory-to-practice void which must be filled with scientific research. In this thesis, woven carbon/vinyl ester composites are studied under a wide spectrum of settings and conditions. The adverse effects of sea water environment and arctic temperatures on such mentioned composites are explored in the form of moisture uptake, impact on flexural modulus, strength and structural damage. It was found that sea water saturation in general degrades the flexural strength up to 19.45%, and arctic exposure and combined condition increase the flexural strength by about 23.1% and 36.2%, respectively. In addition, the fatigue life of woven FRPCs is investigated under dry and saturated conditions and was found to significantly decrease when moisture content was at maximum state. Furthermore, the use of polymer additive manufacturing technology for imparting texture to bond regions in adhesively bonded joints is also explored. An improvement in the apparent shear strength values of adhesively bonded single lap joints is achieved by fusing structural reinforcements to the adherents through fused deposition modeling (FDM) additive technique, increasing the occurrence of cohesive failure over adhesive failure. Lastly, the compressive and impact response of carbon fiber composites with fly ash interlaminar embedding (FoamPosites) is analyzed, resulting in a density reduction of up to 12.58% without severely compromising the structural integrity of the material system.
Cognitive, Academic, and Behavioral Correlates of Medication Adherence in Children and Adolescents with Perinatally Acquired HIV Infection

Objective: Medication adherence is critical to the success of antiretroviral therapies for children and youth with perinatally acquired HIV. Factors that influence successful transition of medication responsibility from caregivers to youth are poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship of medication adherence with demographic, cognitive, academic, and behavioral characteristics. Methods: Randomly selected youth, N = 151, aged 8 to 18 years, completed cognitive and academic measures, and they and their caregivers completed questionnaires assessing behavior and emotional well-being. An announced pill count and questionnaires completed by youth and their caregivers were used to evaluate adherence. Results: Of 151 participants, 100 completed all adherence measures. Adherence rates varied by assessment method. Nonadherence (<90%) by pill count was associated with older child age, greater youth responsibility for medications, and other demographic and medication regimen variables. Verbal impairment predicted better self-reported adherence and reading problems predicted better self- and caregiver-reported adherence. Youth-reported locus of control was associated with pill count nonadherence, and poor relationships with parents were associated with youth-reported nonadherence. Conclusions: Consideration of youth cognitive or academic status may be helpful in evaluating medication adherence in patients with perinatally acquired HIV infection, particularly when using self- or caregiver reports to assess adherence. Vigilance for adherence problems is indicated when youth are older, responsible for medications, report poor caregiver relationships, and/or sense a lack of control over their lives.
Age‐related changes of the regeneration mode in the mouse peripheral olfactory system following olfactotoxic drug methimazole‐induced damage

We investigated age‐related changes in the mode of regeneration in the mouse peripheral olfactory system after olfactotoxic drug‐induced damage. Mice at postnatal ages of 10 days, 3 months, and 16 months were given an intraperitoneal injection of methimazole to produce damage in the olfactory neuroepithelium. The olfactory neuroepithelia were harvested and analyzed immunohistochemically at various postlesion timepoints, from 1 day through to 94 days, to investigate neuroepithelial cell proliferation, the time course of neuronal differentiation, the reconstitution of neuroepithelium, and the innervation of the olfactory bulb. Functional recovery was assessed using the vanillin avoidance behavioral test. The chronological pattern in the expression of Ki67, beta III tubulin, and olfactory marker protein, molecular markers for neuronal cell proliferation and differentiation, changed similarly among the different age groups. In contrast, the extent of neuroepithelial cell proliferation after injury decreased with age, and the final histological recovery of the olfactory neuroepithelium and the innervation of the olfactory bulb were significantly smaller in the 16‐month‐old group compared to the younger age groups. These results suggest that the age‐related decline in the capacity of olfactory neuroepithelium to reconstitute neuroepithelium is associated with its age‐related decrease in proliferative activity after the neuroepithelial injury rather than changes in the process of neuronal differentiation. In spite of these incomplete anatomical recoveries, 16‐month‐old mice regained the ability to avoid vanillin solution by 1 month postlesion, suggesting that the extent of anatomical epithelial damage is not necessarily proportional to the threshold of olfactory perception. J. Comp. Neurol. 519:2154–2174, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Numerical Simulation of Circular Synthetic Jets with Asymmetric Forcing Profiles~!2009-04-21~!2009-07-09~!2010-04-01~!

This paper presents a detailed numerical simulation of the fluid flow characteristics of a synthetic jet. The fluid motion is caused by an oscillating piston within a circular channel which is connected to a larger cavity. The oscillating piston utilized a sawtooth forcing profile, and the solution encompassed the channel geometry, the cavity, and the fluid domain external to the cavity. Momentum fluxes through the orifice and over the exterior of the cavity are calculated. The contribution of the external flow to the induced momentum, by means of the co-flow, is investigated numerically. These findings support previous experimental and computational investigations of the existence of co-flow and its overall contribution to mass and momentum flowrates. The effects of the asymmetric forcing profile on the net and instantaneous momentum fluxes, as well as the co-flow mass flux, are presented. Of particular note, it was found that the shape of the sawtooth profile has a significant impact on direction of momentum transferred to the fluid, however, the absolute magnitudes of this momentum flowrate were found to be negligible compared to the momentum flowing through the orifice.
A Novel Hybrid Sequential Design Strategy for Global Surrogate Modeling of Computer Experiments

Many complex real-world systems can be accurately modeled by simulations. However, high-fidelity simulations may take hours or even days to compute. Because this can be impractical, a surrogate model is often used to approximate the dynamic behavior of the original simulator. This model can then be used as a cheap, drop-in replacement for the simulator. Because simulations can be very expensive, the data points, which are required to build the model, must be chosen as optimally as possible. Sequential design strategies offer a huge advantage over one-shot experimental designs because they can use information gathered from previous data points in order to determine the location of new data points. Each sequential design strategy must perform a trade-off between exploration and exploitation, where the former involves selecting data points in unexplored regions of the design space, while the latter suggests adding data points in regions which were previously identified to be interesting (for example, highly nonlinear regions). In this paper, a novel hybrid sequential design strategy is proposed which uses a Monte Carlo-based approximation of a Voronoi tessellation for exploration and local linear approximations of the simulator for exploitation. The advantage of this method over other sequential design methods is that it is independent of the model type, and can therefore be used in heterogeneous modeling environments, where multiple model types are used at the same time. The new method is demonstrated on a number of test problems, showing that it is a robust, competitive, and efficient sequential design strategy.
Timing of Stage II Lactogenesis is Predicted by Antenatal Metabolic Health

We examined the relationship between metabolic biomarkers and time to onset of lactogenesis, stage II (OL). We enrolled a population‐based sample of expectant primiparas attending a single prenatal clinic. The outcome measure was OL, based on maternal report. Independent variables were serum insulin, glucose, insulin:glucose ratio, adiponectin, leptin, c‐reactive protein, IL‐6, resistin, and TNF‐alpha from the 1‐hour post Glucose Challenge Test blood sample. We used stepwise linear regression to build a model predictive of OL hour. Over 6 months, 26 of 29 primiparas agreed to be screened, of whom 18 delivered at term and initiated breastfeeding (n=2 missing blood samples). For the 16 with complete data, medians (min‐max) were: insulin, 303 (117–2047) pmol/L; glucose, 6.3 (3.3–8.9) mmol/L; insulin:glucose ratio, 61 (26–293) pmol/mmol; adiponectin, 15.4 (4.5–29.3 ug/mL); postpartum BMI, 27.4 (21.8–34.7); and OL, 64 (10–121) h. The model, OL = 232 – 34.9(log insulin:glucose) – 1.4(log adiponectin), resulted in the most robust fit (R2=0.56, P=0.005). Adjustment for potential confounders did not weaken the parameter estimates. Thus, higher insulin response to a glucose challenge (relative to glucose response), and higher adiponectin (an insulin sensitizer) are associated with earlier onset of OL. Given the high rates of obesity and delayed OL in the US, greater exploration of this relationship is warranted.
A Multi-sensor Speech Database with Applications towards Robust Speech Processing in hostile Environments

In this paper, we present a database with speech in different types of background noises. The speech and noise were recorded with a set of different microphones and including some sensors that pick up the speech vibrations by making contact with the skull, the throat and the ear canal, respectively. As these sensors should be less sensitive to noise sources, our database can be especially useful for investigating the properties of these special microphones and comparing them to those of conventional microphones for applications requiring noise robust speech capturing and processing. In this paper we describe some experiments that were carried out using this database in the field of Voice Activity Detection (VAD). It is shown that the signals of a special microphone such as the throat microphone exhibit a high signal to noise ratio and that this property can be exploited to significantly improve the accuracy of a VAD algorithm.
Single-Molecule Carbon Nanotube Field-Effect Transistors for Genomic Applications

Single-Molecule Carbon Nanotube Field-Effect Transistors for Genomic Applications Scott Marshall Trocchia Single-molecule carbon nanotube-based field-effect transistors are promising all-electronic devices for probing interactions of various biological and chemical molecules at the singlemolecule level. Such devices consist of point-functionalized carbon nanotubes which are charge sensitive in the vicinity of a generated defect on the nanotube sidewall. Of particular interest is the characterization of the kinetic rates and thermodynamics of DNA duplex formation through repeated association (hybridization) and dissociation (melting) events on timescales unmatched by conventional single-molecule methods. In this work, we study the kinetics and thermodynamics of DNA duplex formation with two types of single-walled nanotubes: CVD-grown and solution-processed. In both assessments, we are able to extract kinetic and thermodynamic parameters governing the hybridization and melting of DNA oligonucleotides. In the latter case, devices are spun onto a wafer surface from an organic suspension, revealing consistent electrical characteristics. Significant effort is made to expand this work to wafer-level, in an effort to make the fabrication manufacturable.
Distinct Types of Feeding Related Neurons in Mouse Hypothalamus

The last two decades of research provided evidence for a substantial heterogeneity among feeding-related neurons (FRNs) in the hypothalamus. However, it remains unclear how FRNs differ in their firing patterns during food intake. Here, we investigated the relationship between the activity of neurons in mouse hypothalamus and their feeding behavior. Using tetrode-based in vivo recording technique, we identified various firing patterns of hypothalamic FRNs, which, after the initiation of food intake, can be sorted into four types: sharp increase (type I), slow increase (type II), sharp decrease (type III), and sustained decrease (type IV) of firing rates. The feeding-related firing response of FRNs was rigidly related to the duration of food intake and, to a less extent, associated with the type of food. The majority of these FRNs responded to glucose and leptin and exhibited electrophysiological characteristics of putative GABAergic neurons. In conclusion, our study demonstrated the diversity of neurons in the complex hypothalamic network coordinating food intake.
An annotation scheme for discourse-level argumentation in research articles

In order to build robust automatic abstracting systems, there is a need for better training resources than are currently available. In this paper, we introduce an annotation scheme for scientific articles which can be used to build such a resource in a consistent way. The seven categories of the scheme are based on rhetorical moves of argumentation. Our experimental results show that the scheme is stable, reproducible and intuitive to use.
Toward a theory of transactional contention managers

In recent software transactional memory proposals, a contention manager module is responsible for ensuring that the system as a whole makes progress. A number of contention manager algorithms have been proposed and empirically evaluated.In this paper we lay some foundations for a theory of contention management. We present the greedy contention manager, the first to combine non-trivial provable properties with good practical performance.In a model where transaction delays are finite, the greedy manager guarantees that every transaction commits within a bounded time, and the time to complete n concurrent transactions that share s objects is within a factor of s(s+1)/2 of the time that would have been taken by an optimal off-line list scheduler. No contention manager reviewed in the literature satisfies both the properties. Benchmark results convey our claim of the practicality of the greedy manager.
Automation of 3D Cell Culture Using Chemically Defined Hydrogels

Drug development relies on high-throughput screening involving cell-based assays. Most of the assays are still based on cells grown in monolayer rather than in three-dimensional (3D) formats, although cells behave more in vivo–like in 3D. To exemplify the adoption of 3D techniques in drug development, this project investigated the automation of a hydrogel-based 3D cell culture system using a liquid-handling robot. The hydrogel technology used offers high flexibility of gel design due to a modular composition of a polymer network and bioactive components. The cell inert degradation of the gel at the end of the culture period guaranteed the harmless isolation of live cells for further downstream processing. Human colon carcinoma cells HCT-116 were encapsulated and grown in these dextran-based hydrogels, thereby forming 3D multicellular spheroids. Viability and DNA content of the cells were shown to be similar in automated and manually produced hydrogels. Furthermore, cell treatment with toxic Taxol concentrations (100 nM) had the same effect on HCT-116 cell viability in manually and automated hydrogel preparations. Finally, a fully automated dose-response curve with the reference compound Taxol showed the potential of this hydrogel-based 3D cell culture system in advanced drug development.
Direction of Arrival Estimation using a Sparse Linear Antenna

1057 Abstract—This paper presents the use of Inverse Free Krylov Subspace Algorithm (IFKSA) with Estimation of Signal Parameter via Rotational Invariance Technique (ESPRIT), for Direction-of-Arrival (DOA) estimation using a Sparse Linear Array (SLA) of antenna elements. The use of SLA reduces the hardware requirements and the production cost. The SLA generates the sparse data, the pure signal subspace is first decomposed from the received corrupted signal space using IFKSA and later, ESPRIT is used to estimate the DOAs. Computer simulations are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm.
Conservation and evolution of gene coexpression networks in human and chimpanzee brains

Comparisons of gene expression between human and non-human primate brains have identified hundreds of differentially expressed genes, yet translating these lists into key functional distinctions between species has proved difficult. Here we provide a more integrated view of human brain evolution by examining the large-scale organization of gene coexpression networks in human and chimpanzee brains. We identify modules of coexpressed genes that correspond to discrete brain regions and quantify their conservation between the species. Module conservation in cerebral cortex is significantly weaker than module conservation in subcortical brain regions, revealing a striking gradient that parallels known evolutionary hierarchies. We introduce a method for identifying species-specific network connections and demonstrate how differential network connectivity can be used to identify key drivers of evolutionary change. By integrating our results with comparative genomic sequence data and estimates of protein sequence divergence rates, we confirm a number of network predictions and validate these findings. Our results provide insights into the molecular bases of primate brain organization and demonstrate the general utility of weighted gene coexpression network analysis.
Face detection and recognition in color images

In this paper we describe an algorithm for a color based technique used to detect frontal human faces in images where they appear. A process for face detection, involves template matching, region clustering and color segmentation, works with high accuracy, and gives good statistical results with training images. Given the generality of the images and the templates used, the assumption would be that the implementation works well on other images, regardless of the scene lighting, size of faces or type of faces in the pictures. After detecting faces Principle component analysis is used to recognize the face of particular person from the image.
A TWO-STRAIN EPIDEMIC MODEL WITH UNCERTAINTY IN THE INTERACTION

Abstract Annual epidemics of influenza A typically involve two subtypes, with a degree of cross-immunity. We present a model of an epidemic of two interacting viruses, where the degree of cross-immunity may be unknown. We treat the unknown as a second independent variable, and expand the dependent variables in orthogonal functions of this variable. The resulting set of differential equations is solved numerically. We show that if the population is initially more susceptible to one variant, if that variant invades earlier, or if it has a higher basic reproduction number than the other variant, then its dynamics are largely unaffected by cross-immunity. In contrast, the dynamics of the other variant may be considerably restricted.
Automatic Arabic diacritics restoration based on deep nets

In this paper, Arabic diacritics restoration problem is tackled under the deep learning framework presenting Confused Subset Resolution (CSR) method to improve the classification accuracy, in addition to Arabic Part-of-Speech (PoS) tagging framework using deep neural nets. Special focus is given to syntactic diacritization, which still suffer low accuracy as indicated by related works. Evaluation is done versus state-of-the-art systems reported in literature, with quite challenging datasets, collected from different domains. Standard datasets like LDC Arabic Tree Bank is used in addition to custom ones available online for results replication. Results show significant improvement of the proposed techniques over other approaches, reducing the syntactic classification error to 9.9% and morphological classification error to 3% compared to 12.7% and 3.8% of the best reported results in literature, improving the error by 22% over the best reported systems
Effect of various factors on wavelength tolerance in microholographic recording

The wavelength tolerance in microholographic recording is reported to be narrow, but the actual value is uncertain. Therefore, the effect of various factors on the wavelength tolerance in microholographic recording was investigated through a numerical simulation. The recording and readout beams were expressed as the superposition of plane waves. The diffraction efficiency of a microhologram was calculated using the coupled wave theory. The wavelength tolerance was defined as the wavelength range where the diffraction efficiency was higher than the half of its maximum value. The center wavelength of the laser was 405 nm, the numerical aperture of the objective lenses was 0.85, and the refractive index, maximum refractive index change, and thickness of the recording medium were 1.5, 1.0 x 10-3, and 300 μm, respectively. In this case, the wavelength tolerance was as narrow as ±0.18 nm. First, random aberrations were added to the recording and readout beams. Even when the root-mean-square wavefront aberration was increased to 0.14 λ, the maximum diffraction efficiency decreased but the wavelength tolerance did not change. Next, multiple microholograms were recorded in the in-plane and vertical directions and the center microhologram was reproduced. Even when the number of recorded microholograms was increased to 5 x 5 x 5, the maximum diffraction efficiency decreased but the wavelength tolerance only slightly increased to ±0.21 nm. If the actual wavelength tolerance would be much wider, there might be another factor that makes the equivalent thickness of the recording medium much thinner (e.g. nonlinearity of the recording medium).