Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Symmetrically Laminated Folded Plate Structures Using the Meshfree Galerkin Method

A meshfree Galerkin method that is based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) is developed in this paper to study the flexure behavior of folded symmetrically laminated plate structures. The mature meshfree model that was established by the authors for the stability analysis of folded isotropic plate structures is extended to simulate folded laminated plate structures. The feature of this model is its consideration of a folded laminated plate as an assembly of laminates and its ability to study the laminates separately with the meshfree Galerkin method before the entire folded plate. The stiffness matrices of the laminates are first derived by the meshfree method. They are then superposed to produce the global stiffness matrix of the folded plate. The superposition process is realized by treating every laminate as a super element and accumulating their stiffness matrices one by one as in the finite element methods (FEM). By taking advantage of the meshfree characteristics, no mesh is required to determine the stiffness matrices of the laminates in this paper. Hence the troublesome remeshing is removed completely from the study of such problems as the large deformation or crack propagation of folded laminated plates. The convergence and accuracy of the proposed method are examined by computing several numerical examples, and good agreement is observed between the present results and those that are given by ANSYS.
4068 - COHESIVE ZONES FOR FATIGUE DAMAGE IN SOLDER JOINTS

Fatigue damage initiation and propagation in a solder bump, subjected to cyclic load ng, is simulated using a cohesive zone methodology. Damage is assumed to occur at interfac es modeled through cohesive zones in the material, while the bulk material deforms elastoplastically. The state of damag e at an interface is incorporated into the traction-displacement law of the cohesive zone by a damage varia ble. The gradual degradation of the interfaces and the corresponding damage accumulation throughout the cycling process is accounted for by an interfacial damage evolution law, which captures the main failure characte ristics.
Isolation and characterization of a human fetal-alpha-globulin from the sera of fetuses and a hepatoma patient.

Summary It has been demonstrated that fetal serum contains an α-globulin which is not present in normal adults. This fetal α-globulin has become the subject of great interest because it appears again specifically in the sera of hepatoma patients. It was isolated from the serum of a patient with hepatoma as well as from fetuses by an immunochemical method. Physicochemical and chemical properties of the two preparations were studied, and essentially identical results were obtained.
Efficient construction of visibility maps using approximate occlusion sweep

We present an algorithm that efficiently constructs a visibility map for a given view of a polygonal scene. The view is represented by a BSP tree and the visibility map is obtained by postprocessing of that tree. The scene is organised in a kD-tree that is used to perform an approximate occlusion sweep. The occlusion sweep is interleaved with hierarchical visibility tests what results in expected output sensitive behaviour of the algorithm. We evaluate our implementation of the method on several scenes and demonstrate its application to discontinuity meshing.
Combined intramyocardial delivery of human pericytes and cardiac stem cells additively improves the healing of mouse infarcted hearts through stimulation of vascular and muscular repair.

RATIONALE Optimization of cell therapy for cardiac repair may require the association of different cell populations with complementary activities. OBJECTIVE Compare the reparative potential of saphenous vein-derived pericytes (SVPs) with that of cardiac stem cells (CSCs) in a model of myocardial infarction, and investigate whether combined cell transplantation provides further improvements. METHODS AND RESULTS SVPs and CSCs were isolated from vein leftovers of coronary artery bypass graft surgery and discarded atrial specimens of transplanted hearts, respectively. Single or dual cell therapy (300 000 cells of each type per heart) was tested in infarcted SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency)-Beige mice. SVPs and CSCs alone improved cardiac contractility as assessed by echocardiography at 14 days post myocardial infarction. The effect was maintained, although attenuated at 42 days. At histological level, SVPs and CSCs similarly inhibited infarct size and interstitial fibrosis, SVPs were superior in inducing angiogenesis and CSCs in promoting cardiomyocyte proliferation and recruitment of endogenous stem cells. The combination of cells additively reduced the infarct size and promoted vascular proliferation and arteriogenesis, but did not surpass single therapies with regard to contractility indexes. SVPs and CSCs secrete similar amounts of hepatocyte growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, stem cell factor, and stromal cell-derived factor-1, whereas SVPs release higher quantities of angiopoietins and microRNA-132. Coculture of the 2 cell populations results in competitive as well as enhancing paracrine activities. In particular, the release of stromal cell-derived factor-1 was synergistically augmented along with downregulation of stromal cell-derived factor-1-degrading enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase 4. CONCLUSIONS Combinatory therapy with SVPs and CSCs may complementarily help the repair of infarcted hearts.
Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Stability at the NMJ Deficient in α-Syntrophin In Vivo

α-Syntrophin (α-syn), a scaffold protein, links signaling molecules to the dystrophin–glycoprotein complex. Absence of α-syn from the DGC is known to lead to structurally aberrant neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) with few acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) clustered at synaptic sites. Using α-syn knock-out mice, we show that during the first postnatal week, α-syn is not required for synapse formation. However, at postnatal day 6 (P6)–P7, the structural integrity of the postsynaptic apparatus is altered, the turnover rate of AChRs increases significantly, and the number/density of AChRs is impaired. At the adult α-syn−/− NMJ, the turnover rate of AChRs is ∼4 times faster than wild-type synapses, and most removed receptors are targeted to degradation as few AChRs recycled to synaptic sites. Biochemical analyses show that in muscle cells of adult knock-out α-syn mice, total AChRs and scaffold protein rapsyn are significantly reduced, the 89 kDa and 75 kDa isoforms of tyrosine phosphorylated α-dystrobrevin (α-dbn) 1 (which are required for the maintenance and stability of AChR in α-dbn−/− synapses) are barely detectable. Electroporation of GFP-α-dbn1 in α-syn−/− muscle cells partially restored receptor density, turnover rate, and the structural integrity of the postsynaptic apparatus, whereas expression of rapsyn-GFP failed to rescue the α-syn−/− synaptic phenotype. These results demonstrate that α-syn is required for the maturation and stability of the postsynaptic apparatus and suggest that α-syn may act via α-dbn1.
Differential gene expression during HIV-1 infection analyzed by suppression subtractive hybridization

Objective: Characterization of the effects of HIV-1 infection and apoptosis on cellular and viral gene expression. Methods: Flow cytometry was used to analyze infection and apoptosis concurrently in HIV-1IIIB-infected CEM-SS T cells. Suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) was applied to cells from different time points of infection to construct subtracted complementary DNA (cDNA) libraries. Differential screening and Northern blots confirmed differential gene expression and these genes were sequenced and compared with database. Results: T cells undergo apoptosis at early stages of HIV-1IIIB infection (days 5–7 post-infection). Surprisingly, cells begin to recover after day 9 and by day 18 almost all infected cells are viable, even though they maintain the same level of infection. By SSH, differential gene expression profiles between day 7 and day 18 after HIV-1IIIB infection were characterized. SSH yielded two subtracted cDNA libraries; differential screening of the subtracted cDNA libraries suggested that 200 out of 864 colonies were highly expressed at their respective time points. DNA sequence analysis identified specific apoptosis-related genes, HIV-1 viral genes, and other candidate genes of interest. Northern blot analysis confirmed that some of these genes were expressed predominantly at the ‘apoptotic’ or ‘non-apoptotic’ time points. Conclusions: Known and novel cellular gene products have been identified that are directly (or inversely) correlated with apoptosis and may regulate cell death in HIV-1 infection. These results provide a framework for functional studies on the differentially expressed genes and may suggest novel therapeutic approaches for treatment of HIV-1-infected individuals.
Certified Lightweight Contextual Policies for Android

Security in Android applications is enforced with access control policies implemented via permissions giving access to different resources on the phone. These permissions are often too coarse and on most Android platforms, based on an all-or-nothing decision. How can we grant permissions and be sure they will not be misused? We propose a policy-based lightweight approach for the verification and certification of Android applications with respect to a given policy. It consists of a verifier running on a conventional computer and a checker residing on an Android mobile device. The verifier applies static analysis to show the conformance between an application and a given policy. It also generates a certificate asserting the validity of the analysis result. The checker, on a mobile device, can then check the validity of the certificate to confirm or refute the fulfilment of the policy by the application before installing it. This scheme represents a potential future model for app stores where apps are equipped with policies and checkable evidence. We have implemented our approach and report on preliminary results obtained for a set of popular real-world applications.
Detection of antibody-accessible proteins on the cell surface of Haemophilus influenzae type b

A radioimmunoprecipitation method has been devised which permits the direct identification of those proteins which are both exposed on the cell surface of Haemophilus influenzae type b and accessible to antibody. Both extrinsically and intrinsically radiolabeled cells of this organism were employed as the sources of antigen in radioimmunoprecipitation experiments which involved incubation of intact bacterial cells with antisera. Several different proteins, ranging in apparent molecular weight from 33,000 to 160,000, were shown to be accessible to antibody on the cell surface of this pathogen.
Do breast cancer risk factors differ among those who do and do not undertake mammography screening?

Objectives There is considerable interest in whether mammography screening leads to over-diagnosis of breast cancer. However self-selection into screening programmes may lead to risk differences that affect estimates of over-diagnosis. This study compares the breast cancer risk profiles of participants and non-participants of population-based mammography screening. Risk profiles are also compared between those who have and have not used private screening services. Setting This study involved 1162 women aged 40–84 who participated in the 2012 Health Omnibus, an annual face-to-face interview-based survey of a representative sample of the population in the state of South Australia. Methods Data were collected on participation in mammography screening, demographic characteristics and breast cancer risk factors (including reproductive, familial and lifestyle factors). Missing data were multiply imputed. Factors independently associated with ever having been screened were identified using multivariable logistic regression, for population-based and ad hoc, private mammography screening separately. Results Compared with non-participants, participants of population-based screening were more likely to have used hormone replacement therapy (odds ratio [OR] = 3.72), experienced breast biopsy or surgery (OR = 2.22), and be overweight or obese (OR = 1.57). They were less likely to be sufficiently active (OR = 0.57) or be born in a non-English speaking country (OR = 0.50) or aged under 50 (OR = 0.09). Women who were screened privately were more likely to have a family history of breast cancer (OR = 1.66) and have experienced breast biopsy or surgery (OR = 3.17) than those who had not. Conclusions South Australian women who participated in the population-based mammography screening have a slightly higher prevalence of breast cancer risk factors. This also applies to those who undertook private screening.
Robust reliable guaranteed cost piecewise fuzzy control for discrete-time nonlinear systems with time-varying delay and actuator failures

In this paper, we investigate the delay-dependent robust reliable guaranteed cost (RRGC) fuzzy control problem for discrete-time nonlinear systems with time-varying delays. The delays may simultaneously appear in the state and in the control input. Also, both parametric uncertainties and control component failure may exist. Through Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy modelling of nonlinear delayed-systems and based on an appropriate piecewise Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, a piecewise fuzzy controller is designed. Sufficient conditions for the existence of a RRGC controller are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Furthermore, a suboptimal RRGC fuzzy controller is given by means of a convex optimization procedure with LMI constraints which can not only guarantee the stability of the closed-loop fuzzy system, but also provides an optimized upper bound of the given cost performance despite possible actuator faults. Two numerical examples are presented in this paper to illustrate the feasibility of the theoretical developments.
Trabectedin is a promising antitumor agent potentially inducing melanocytic differentiation for clear cell sarcoma

Clear cell sarcoma is an aggressive soft tissue sarcoma and highly resistant to conventional chemotherapy and radiation therapy. This devastating disease is defined by EWSR1‐ATF1 fusion gene resulting from chromosomal translocation t(12;22)(q13;q12) and characterized by melanocytic differentiation. A marine‐derived antineoplastic agent, trabectedin, inhibits the growth of myxoid liposarcoma and Ewing sarcoma by causing adipogenic differentiation and neural differentiation, respectively. In this study, we examined the antitumor effects and mechanism of action of trabectedin on human clear cell sarcoma cell lines. We showed that trabectedin decreased the cell proliferation of five clear cell sarcoma cell lines in a dose‐dependent manner in vitro and reduced tumor growth of two mouse xenograft models. Flow cytometry and immunoblot analyses in vitro and immunohistochemical analysis in vivo revealed that trabectedin‐induced G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Furthermore, trabectedin increased the expression of melanocytic differentiation markers along with downregulation of ERK activity in vitro and the rate of melanin‐positive cells in vivo. These results suggest that trabectedin has potent antitumor activity against clear cell sarcoma cells by inducing cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and, in part, by promoting melanocytic differentiation through inactivation of ERK signaling. Our present study indicates that trabectedin is a promising differentiation‐inducing agent for clear cell sarcoma.
Volunteered geographic information and data quality - the case of social reporting

Content created by internet users and enriched with geographical footprints is usually referred to as Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI; Goodchild 2007). This new source of information enables the collection of rich data sets that often outperform the data collected by private companies and government agencies in terms of the amount of data producers and their personal motivation to contribute (Goodchild 2008, Goodchild and Glennon 2010). In spite of the potential of VGI, user-generated data production is often accompanied by problems that have to be overcome to ensure usable and valuable data sets. Four main challenges were identified in literature, namely the motivation of users to contribute, the quality of the resulting data and the spatial and temporal coverage of the latter (Coleman et al. 2009, Feick & Roche 2013, Flanagin & Metzger 2008). This work studies the issue of data quality in the different stages of VGI data creation, collection and evaluation. It concentrates on social reporting scenarios, in which citizens submit geotagged reports about observations of real-world-events. The following basic research questions are addressed within this work:
Analysis of Optical Wireless Communication for Underwater Wireless Communication

Recently, the importance of underwater wireless optical communication has been grown for applications of underwater observation and sea monitoring systems. This communication technology is expected to play a prominent role in investigating climate changes, prediction of natural disasters, discovery of natural resources, marine biology in lake, sea, and ocean environment. Though acoustic modems have long been the default wireless communication method for under water applications due to their long range, the need for high speed communication has prompted the exploration of non-acoustic methods thathave previously been overlooked due to their distance limitations. Optical wireless communication has been proposed as the best alternative in order to overcome the limitations in acoustic underwater communication. In this paper we have presented three scenarios regarding underwater optical wireless communication. They are a) Line of sight (LOS) b) Modulating Retro Reflector link c) Reflective link. In this analysis, each scenario has been tested with water having different extinction coefficient and various noise backgrounds. We analysed these links in OPTI SYSTEM. Opti System is an innovative, rapidly evolving, and powerful software design tool that enables users to plan, test, and simulate almost every type of optical link in the transmission layer of a broad spectrum of optical networks from LAN, SAN, MAN to ultra-long-ha ul. It offers transmission layer optical communication system design and planning from component to system level, and visually presents analysis and scenarios. Index Terms- Line of sight scenario, Modulating Retro Reflecting link, Reflective link, Bit Error Rate (BER), extinction coefficient, clean ocean water, coastal ocean water, turbid ocean water.
A sample of mJy radio sources at 1.4 GHz in the Lynx and Hercules fields - II. Cosmic evolution of the space density of FR I radio sources

In this paper the cosmic evolution of the space density of Fanaroff-Riley Class I (FR I) radio sources is investigated out to z ∼ 1, in order to understand the origin of the differences between these and the more powerful FR IIs. High-resolution radio images are presented of the best high-redshift FR I candidate galaxies, drawn from two fields of the Leiden-Berkeley Deep Survey, and previously defined by Rigby, Snellen & Best in Paper 1. Together with lower resolution radio observations (both previously published in Paper 1 and, for a subset of sources, also presented here) these are used to morphologically classify the sample. Sources which are clearly resolved are classified by morphology alone, whereas barely or unresolved sources were classified using a combination of morphology and flux density loss in the higher resolution data, indicative of resolved-out extended emission. The space densities of the FR Is are then calculated as a function of redshift, and compared to both measurements of the local value and the behaviour of the more powerful FR IIs. The space density of FR I radio sources with luminosities (at 1.4 GHz) > 10 25 W Hz -1 is enhanced by a factor of 5-9 by z ∼ 1, implying moderately strong evolution of this population; this enhancement is in good agreement with models of FR II evolution at the same luminosity. There are also indications that the evolution is luminosity dependent, with the lower powered sources evolving less strongly.
Natural hormone therapy for menopause

Menopausal women are deficient in estrogen, progesterone, and frequently in testosterone and DHEA. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in the United States has generally consisted of one or two agents, typically equine estrogen and medroxyprogesterone, with increased risk of heart attack, stroke, dementia, and breast cancer [WHI trials]. Bio-identical hormones [chemically endogenous hormones] have gained popularity and can be mixed according to physician's orders by compounding pharmacists in the United States. However, there is little published information about the use of such hormones. This paper reports a 12 plus months follow up on 189 patients who were administered natural estrogen plus progesterone with or without DHEA or testosterone according to a rationalized protocol described later. Ninety-seven percent of the patients experienced varying degrees of symptom control, whereas three had minimal or questionable benefit. Mental symptoms experienced upon presentation improved in 90% of the patients. Sixty percent of the patients, who had gained weight during menopause, lost an average of 14.8 lbs [SD 11.98 lbs]. Complications described with traditional HRT did not develop in this group of patients. These findings point out a need for larger controlled trials of similar protocols in the management of menopause.
Determination of effective permittivity and permeability of metamaterials from reflection and transmission coefficients

We analyze the reflection and transmission coefficients calculated from transfer matrix simulations on finite lengths of electromagnetic metamaterials, to determine the effective permittivity ~«! and permeability ~m! W e perform this analysis on structures composed of periodic arrangements of wires, split ring resonators ~SRRs! , and both wires and SRRs. We find the recovered frequency-dependent« and m are entirely consistent with analytic expressions predicted by effective medium arguments. Of particular relevance are that a wire medium exhibits a frequency region in which the real part of « is negative, and SRRs produce a frequency region in which the real part of m is negative. In the combination structure, at frequencies where both the recovered real parts of « and m are simultaneously negative, the real part of the index of refraction is also found to be unambiguously negative.
An ATP–ADP switch in MuB controls progression of the Mu transposition pathway

MuB protein, an ATP‐dependent DNA‐binding protein, collaborates with Mu transposase to promote efficient transposition. MuB binds target DNA, delivers this target DNA segment to transposase and activates transposase's catalytic functions. Using ATP‐bound, ADP‐bound and ATPase‐defective MuB proteins we investigated how nucleotide binding and hydrolysis control the activities of MuB protein, important for transposition. We found that both MuB–ADP and MuB–ATP stimulate transposase, whereas only MuB–ATP binds with high affinity to DNA. Four different ATPase‐defective MuB mutants fail to activate the normal transposition pathway, further indicating that ATP plays critical regulatory roles during transposition. These mutant proteins fall into two classes: class I mutants are defective in target DNA binding, whereas class II mutants bind target DNA, deliver it to transposase, but fail to promote recombination with this DNA. Based on these studies, we propose that the switch from the ATP‐ to ADP‐bound form allows MuB to release the target DNA while maintaining its stimulatory interaction with transposase. Thus, ATP‐hydrolysis by MuB appears to function as a molecular switch controlling how target DNA is delivered to the core transposition machinery.