Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of annealing in hydrogen atmosphere on ZnO films for field emission display

Surface morphology, crystallinity, conductivity and optical transmittance of ZnO films can be modified by annealing process. Hydrogen is one of the popular annealing gases as well as nitrogen, argon, oxygen and air which are commonly used for thin film cleaning or the removal of native oxide. In general, annealing is done at high temperatures (> 600degC) to improve the film properties. From a view point of environment, however, lower annealing temperature is preferable. In this work, low annealing process was challenged to understand the effect of annealing temperature on properties of ZnO thin films and nanostructured film grown on glass substrates for transparent field emission device applications. The annealing temperature employed was 100, 200 and 450°C at 100 sccm hydrogen flow rate. ZnO thin films were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering. The ZnO thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), UV-VIS and Raman spectroscopy. The sheet resistances reduced about 15 kohm/sq at low annealing temperature. By contrast, the optical transmittance did not show any significant changes after annealing. The FE current density increased after the ZnO nanostructures film was annealed in 100°C. The results obtained could motivate a surface treatment for flexible ZnO thin film since the substrate is always suffered by heat.
Resilience, Dynamics, and Interactions within a Model Multispecies Exoelectrogenic-Biofilm Community

ABSTRACT Anode-associated multispecies exoelectrogenic biofilms are essential for the function of bioelectrochemical systems (BESs). The individual activities of anode-associated organisms and physiological responses resulting from coculturing are often hard to assess due to the high microbial diversity in these systems. Therefore, we developed a model multispecies biofilm comprising three exoelectrogenic proteobacteria, Shewanella oneidensis, Geobacter sulfurreducens, and Geobacter metallireducens, with the aim to study in detail the biofilm formation dynamics, the interactions between the organisms, and the overall activity of an exoelectrogenic biofilm as a consequence of the applied anode potential. The experiments revealed that the organisms build a stable biofilm on an electrode surface that is rather resilient to changes in the redox potential of the anode. The community operated at maximum electron transfer rates at electrode potentials that were higher than 0.04 V versus a normal hydrogen electrode. Current densities decreased gradually with lower potentials and reached half-maximal values at −0.08 V. Transcriptomic results point toward a positive interaction among the individual strains. S. oneidensis and G. sulfurreducens upregulated their central metabolisms as a response to cultivation under mixed-species conditions. G. sulfurreducens was detected in the planktonic phase of the bioelectrochemical reactors in mixed-culture experiments but not when it was grown in the absence of the other two organisms. IMPORTANCE In many cases, multispecies communities can convert organic substrates into electric power more efficiently than axenic cultures, a phenomenon that remains unresolved. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the potential mutual effects of multispecies communities in bioelectrochemical systems to understand how microbes interact in the coculture anodic network and to improve the community's conversion efficiency for organic substrates into electrical energy. The results reveal positive interactions that might lead to accelerated electron transfer in mixed-species anode communities. The observations made within this model biofilm might be applicable to a variety of nonaxenic systems in the field.
Viscoelastic and poroelastic mechanical characterization of hydrated gels

Measurement of the mechanical behavior of hydrated gels is challenging due to a relatively small elastic modulus and dominant time-dependence compared with traditional engineering materials. Here polyacrylamide gel materials are examined using different techniques (indentation, unconfined compression, dynamic mechanical analysis) at different length-scales and considering both viscoelastic and poroelastic mechanical frameworks. Elastic modulus values were similar for nanoindentation and microindentation, but both indentation techniques overestimated elastic modulus values compared to homogeneous loading techniques. Hydraulic and intrinsic permeability values from microindentation tests, deconvoluted using a poroelastic finite element model, were consistent with literature values for gels of the same composition. Although elastic modulus values were comparable for viscoelastic and poroelastic analyses, timedependent behavior was length-scale dependent, supporting the use of a poroelastic, instead of a viscoelastic, framework for future studies of gel mechanical behavior under indentation.
Formation of an Aluminide Coating on Hot Stamped Steel

The degradation of type 1 aluminized coating during hot stamping leads to the coating cracking due to the formation of a brittle FeAl2 intermetallic phase. The formation of an aluminide coating prior to hot stamping was investigated as a method to simultaneously improve the coating ductility and achieve a good hot corrosion resistance of the hot stamped parts. A formable aluminide coating was obtained when the coating alloying was achieved during the pre-heating of the steel and an Fe content higher than 70 at% (83 wt%) was reached. The coating was identified as Fe3Al phase at room temperature. The formation of this aluminide coating on 22MnB5 hot stamping steel was investigated in detail. The effect of this alternative hot stamping thermal cycle on the room temperature mechanical properties of the steel was also investigated.
Inhibition of atherogenesis by the COP9 signalosome subunit 5 in vivo

Significance Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory condition of the artery wall and main cause of myocardial infarction and stroke. Inflammatory processes evoking atherogenic lesions involve NF‐κB–dependent endothelial-cell activation and monocyte/macrophage recruitment. Constitutive photomorphogenesis 9 (COP9) signalosome (CSN) subunit 5 (CSN5) and the CSN control cullin/RING E3 ligase-dependent degradation of cell-cycle regulators and inhibitor of κB‐α by cleaving neural precursor cell-expressed, developmentally down-regulated-8 (NEDD8) from cullins. CSN5 promotes tumorigenesis in humans. We generated a conditional KO mouse in which macrophage/granulocyte-CSN5 is deleted. We show that CSN5 suppresses macrophage inflammation and that mice lacking myeloid CSN5 develop larger atherosclerotic lesions. The NEDDylation inhibitor MLN4924 attenuates early atherosclerosis and inhibits inflammation in macrophages and endothelial cells. With MLN4924 in clinical trials, deNEDDylation approaches may qualify as therapeutics to reduce early-stage atherogenesis. Constitutive photomorphogenesis 9 (COP9) signalosome 5 (CSN5), an isopeptidase that removes neural precursor cell-expressed, developmentally down-regulated 8 (NEDD8) moieties from cullins (thus termed “deNEDDylase”) and a subunit of the cullin-RING E3 ligase-regulating COP9 signalosome complex, attenuates proinflammatory NF-κB signaling. We previously showed that CSN5 is up-regulated in human atherosclerotic arteries. Here, we investigated the role of CSN5 in atherogenesis in vivo by using mice with myeloid-specific Csn5 deletion. Genetic deletion of Csn5 in Apoe−/− mice markedly exacerbated atherosclerotic lesion formation. This was broadly observed in aortic root, arch, and total aorta of male mice, whereas the effect was less pronounced and site-specific in females. Mechanistically, Csn5 KO potentiated NF-κB signaling and proinflammatory cytokine expression in macrophages, whereas HIF-1α levels were reduced. Inversely, inhibition of NEDDylation by MLN4924 blocked proinflammatory gene expression and NF-κB activation while enhancing HIF-1α levels and the expression of M2 marker Arginase 1 in inflammatory-elicited macrophages. MLN4924 further attenuated the expression of chemokines and adhesion molecules in endothelial cells and reduced NF-κB activation and monocyte arrest on activated endothelium in vitro. In vivo, MLN4924 reduced LPS-induced inflammation, favored an antiinflammatory macrophage phenotype, and decreased the progression of early atherosclerotic lesions in mice. On the contrary, MLN4924 treatment increased neutrophil and monocyte counts in blood and had no net effect on the progression of more advanced lesions. Our data show that CSN5 is atheroprotective. We conclude that MLN4924 may be useful in preventing early atherogenesis, whereas selectively promoting CSN5-mediated deNEDDylation may be beneficial in all stages of atherosclerosis.
Skinny Is Not Enough: A Content Analysis of Fitspiration on Pinterest

ABSTRACT Fitspiration is a relatively new social media trend nominally intended to promote health and fitness. Fitspiration messages are presented as encouraging; however, they might also engender body dissatisfaction and compulsive exercise. This study analyzed fitspiration content (n = 1050) on the image-based social media platform Pinterest. Independent raters coded the images and text present in the posts. Messages were categorized as appearance- or health-related, and coded for Social Cognitive Theory constructs: standards, behaviors, and outcome expectancies. Messages encouraged appearance-related body image standards and weight management behaviors more frequently than health-related standards and behaviors, and emphasized attractiveness as motivation to partake in such behaviors. Results also indicated that fitspiration messages include a comparable amount of fit praise (i.e., emphasis on toned/defined muscles) and thin praise (i.e., emphasis on slenderness), suggesting that women are not only supposed to be thin but also fit. Considering the negative outcomes associated with both exposure to idealized body images and exercising for appearance reasons, findings suggest that fitspiration messages are problematic, especially for viewers with high risk of eating disorders and related issues.
Rational Proofs with Non-Cooperative Provers

Interactive-proof-based approaches are widely used in verifiable computation outsourcing. The verifier models a computationally-constrained client and the provers model powerful service providers. In classical interactive-proof models with multiple provers, the provers' interests either perfectly align (e.g. MIP) or directly conflict (e.g. refereed games). However, service providers participating in outsourcing applications may not meet such extremes. Instead, each provider may be paid for his service, while he acts solely in his own best interest. An active research area in this context is rational interactive proofs (RIP), in which the provers try to maximize their payment. However, existing works consider either a single prover, or multiple provers who cooperate to maximize their total payment. None of them truly capture the strategic nature of multiple service providers. How to define and design non-cooperative rational interactive proofs is a well-known open problem. We introduce a multi-prover interactive-proof model in which the provers are rational and non-cooperative. That is, each prover acts individually so as to maximize his own payment in the resulting game. This model generalizes single-prover rational interactive proofs as well as cooperative multi-prover rational proofs. This new model better reflects the strategic nature of service providers from a game-theoretic viewpoint. To design and analyze non-cooperative rational interactive proofs (ncRIP), we define a new solution concept for extensive-form games with imperfect information, strong sequential equilibrium. Our technical results focus on protocols which give strong guarantees on utility gap, which is analogous to soundness gap in classical interactive proofs. We give tight characterizations of the class of ncRIP protocols with constant, noticeable, and negligible gap.
Learn-on-the-go: Autonomous cross-subject context learning for internet-of-things applications

Developing machine learning algorithms for applications of Internet-of-Things requires collecting a large amount of labeled training data, which is an expensive and labor-intensive process. Upon a minor change in the context, for example utilization by a new user, the model will need re-training to maintain the initial performance. To address this problem, we propose a graph model and an unsupervised label transfer algorithm (learn-on-the-go) which exploits the relations between source and target user data to develop a highly-accurate and scalable machine learning model. Our analysis on real-world data demonstrates 54% and 22% performance improvement against baseline and state-of-the-art solutions, respectively.
PL-SLAM: A Stereo SLAM System Through the Combination of Points and Line Segments

Traditional approaches to stereo visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) rely on point features to estimate the camera trajectory and build a map of the environment. In low-textured environments, though, it is often difficult to find a sufficient number of reliable point features and, as a consequence, the performance of such algorithms degrades. This paper proposes PL-SLAM, a stereo visual SLAM system that combines both points and line segments to work robustly in a wider variety of scenarios, particularly in those where point features are scarce or not well-distributed in the image. PL-SLAM leverages both points and line segments at all the instances of the process: visual odometry, keyframe selection, bundle adjustment, etc. We contribute also with a loop-closure procedure through a novel bag-of-words approach that exploits the combined descriptive power of the two kinds of features. Additionally, the resulting map is richer and more diverse in three-dimensional elements, which can be exploited to infer valuable, high-level scene structures, such as planes, empty spaces, ground plane, etc. (not addressed in this paper). Our proposal has been tested with several popular datasets (such as EuRoC or KITTI), and is compared with state-of-the-art methods such as ORB-SLAM2, revealing a more robust performance in most of the experiments while still running in real time. An open-source version of the PL-SLAM C++ code has been released for the benefit of the community.
Numerosity representation is encoded in human subcortex

Significance Despite major neuroanatomical differences, adults, infants, nonhuman primates, and invertebrates possess the ability to evaluate relative quantities. Humans’ ability starts with coarse granularity (distinguishing ratios of numerical quantities of 3:1 or larger), but this becomes increasingly precise over development. This series of experiments demonstrates a role of the subcortex in discriminating numerosities in larger (4:1 or 3:1), but not in smaller ratios. These findings map onto the precision with which newborns evaluate number. Combined with evidence from the development of numerical skills, this study implicates the human subcortex as a possible source of core number knowledge that is both related to phylogenetic numerical competence and serves as the foundation on which more complex ontogenetic numerical skills may be built. Certain numerical abilities appear to be relatively ubiquitous in the animal kingdom, including the ability to recognize and differentiate relative quantities. This skill is present in human adults and children, as well as in nonhuman primates and, perhaps surprisingly, is also demonstrated by lower species such as mosquitofish and spiders, despite the absence of cortical computation available to primates. This ubiquity of numerical competence suggests that representations that connect to numerical tasks are likely subserved by evolutionarily conserved regions of the nervous system. Here, we test the hypothesis that the evaluation of relative numerical quantities is subserved by lower-order brain structures in humans. Using a monocular/dichoptic paradigm, across four experiments, we show that the discrimination of displays, consisting of both large (5–80) and small (1–4) numbers of dots, is facilitated in the monocular, subcortical portions of the visual system. This is only the case, however, when observers evaluate larger ratios of 3:1 or 4:1, but not smaller ratios, closer to 1:1. This profile of competence matches closely the skill with which newborn infants and other species can discriminate numerical quantity. These findings suggest conservation of ontogenetically and phylogenetically lower-order systems in adults’ numerical abilities. The involvement of subcortical structures in representing numerical quantities provokes a reconsideration of current theories of the neural basis of numerical cognition, inasmuch as it bolsters the cross-species continuity of the biological system for numerical abilities.
RNA-Seq investigations of human post-mortem trigeminal ganglia

Background The trigeminal ganglion contains neurons that relay sensations of pain, touch, pressure, and many other somatosensory modalities to the central nervous system. The ganglion is also a reservoir for latent herpes virus 1 infection. To gain a better understanding of molecular factors contributing to migraine and headache, transcriptome analyses were performed on postmortem human trigeminal ganglia. Methods RNA-Seq measurements of gene expression were conducted on small sub-regions of 16 human trigeminal ganglia. The samples were also characterized for transcripts derived from viral and microbial genomes. Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) antibodies in blood were measured using the luciferase immunoprecipitation assay. Results Observed molecular heterogeneity could be explained by sampling of anatomically distinct sub-regions of the excised ganglia consistent with neurally-enriched and non-neural, i.e. Schwann cell, enriched subregions. The levels of HSV-1 transcripts detected in trigeminal ganglia correlated with blood levels of HSV-1 antibodies. Multiple migraine susceptibility genes were strongly expressed in neurally-enriched trigeminal samples, while others were expressed in blood vessels. Conclusions These data provide a comprehensive human trigeminal transcriptome and a framework for evaluation of inhomogeneous post-mortem tissues through extensive quality control and refined downstream analyses for RNA-Seq methodologies. Expression profiling of migraine susceptibility genes identified by genetic association appears to emphasize the blood vessel component of the trigeminovascular system. Other genes displayed enriched expression in the trigeminal compared to dorsal root ganglion, and in-depth transcriptomic analysis of the KCNK18 gene underlying familial migraine shows selective neural expression within two specific populations of ganglionic neurons. These data suggest that expression profiling of migraine-associated genes can extend and amplify the underlying neurobiological insights obtained from genetic association studies.
Elusive marine nitrogen fixation

Every year, the ocean is losing more than 200 Tg N from its bioavailable nitrogen pool through denitrification processes: that is, all of the processes that convert fixed nitrogen to nitrogen gas (1). If this loss wasn't compensated by N-inputs, the ocean would quickly loose its fertility, because fixed nitrogen is the most important nutrient fueling phytoplankton growth in the ocean (2). Thanks to the N2-fixers, a special group of marine plankton that live in the sunlit upper ocean and that are able to convert dissolved nitrogen gas into bioavailable nitrogen such as ammonium and organic nitrogen, a substantial part of this loss is compensated for (3). A question that has fascinated oceanographers for decades (4, 5) is how denitrification and N2 fixation are coupled to each other; that is, how the ocean is ensuring that these two major sink and source processes are “dancing” with each other in step. Without such synchronization, the ocean would have experienced large swings in its fixed nitrogen inventory, potentially causing major disruptions to ocean life, something that Earth has not seen in its recent history. One hypothesis is that marine N2 fixation occurs in close spatial association with the major regions of marine denitrification, such as the eastern tropical North and South Pacific (6) (Fig. 1). However, until recently, no one has looked for N2 fixation in these regions (7), largely because this was against the prevailing view that N2-fixers thrive mostly in regions where their high iron demand is met by sufficient Fe deposition from the atmosphere, such as the subtropical North Atlantic (8). Knapp et al. (9) now report on the results from their journey to one of these major denitrification regions. Their goal was to find the purported high levels of N … [↵][1]1Email: nicolas.gruber{at}env.ethz. ch. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Histological subtypes of ovarian cancer associated with parity and breastfeeding in the prospective Million Women Study

Ovarian cancer risk is known to be reduced amongst women who have had children, but reported associations with breastfeeding are varied. Few studies have had sufficient power to explore reliably these associations by tumour histotype. In a prospective study of 1.1 million UK women, 8719 developed ovarian cancer during follow‐up. Cox regression yielded adjusted relative risks (RRs) overall and by tumour histotype amongst women with different childbearing patterns. Nulliparous women had a 24% greater ovarian cancer risk than women with one child, with significant heterogeneity by histotype (p = 0.01). There was no significant increase in serous tumours, a modest increase in mucinous tumours, but a substantial increase in endometrioid (RR = 1.49, 95% CI: 1.18‐1.89) and clear‐cell tumours (RR = 1.68, 1.29‐2.20). Among parous women, each additional birth was associated with an overall 6% reduction in ovarian cancer risk; this association also varied by histotype (p = 0.0006), with the largest reduction in risk for clear‐cell tumours (RR per birth = 0.75, 0.65‐0.85, p < 0.001) and weak, if any, effect for endometrioid, high‐grade serous, or mucinous tumours. We found little association with age at first or last birth. There was about a 10% risk reduction per 12‐months breastfeeding (RR = 0.89, 0.84‐0.94, p < 0.001), with no significant heterogeneity by histotype, but statistical power was limited. In this large prospective study, ovarian cancer risk associated with parity varied substantially by tumour histotype. Nulliparity was associated with a substantially greater overall risk than expected from the effect of a single birth, especially for clear cell and endometrioid tumours, perhaps suggesting that infertility is associated with these histotypes.