Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Direct piezoelectric properties of BiFeO3 epitaxial films grown by combinatorial sputtering

We have proposed that BiFeO3 films are suitable for piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting applications, because of the low dielectric permittivity and excellent ferroelectricity. In this paper, the improvement of the piezoelectric properties of the domain-engineered BiFeO3 films was discussed. The (100) epitaxial films were prepared at growth temperatures between 500 and 650°C on Nb-doped (100) SrRuO3 single crystals. The combinatorial sputtering method was employed in order to prevent Bi defects during high-temperature deposition. The domain structure and e31,f piezoelectric coefficients of the films were characterized by a piezoelectric force microscopy and direct piezoelectric response, respectively. The highest e31,f coefficient of -4.3 C/m2 and figures of merit of 14 GPa were obtained in the film deposited at 600°C, which has the highest domain wall density. This suggests that the introduction of the domain walls is effective to enhance the piezoelectric properties of BiFeO3 films.
Carbon: The Next Silicon?: Book 2--Applications

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) spectroscopies are well-known characterization techniques that reveal the molecular details of a sample non-invasively. We not only discuss how NMR can provide useful information on the microstructure of carbon and its surface properties, but also explain how C-MEMS/C-NEMS technology can be explored for building improved NMR microdevices. The manipulation of fluids and particles by dielectrophoresis and the use of carbon electrodes for dielectrophoresis in Lab-on-a-Chip applications is also discussed. The use of these electrodes in sample preparation through electrical polarization of a sample for identification, manipulation and lysis of bioparticles is emphasized. A new generation of neural prosthetics based on glassy carbon micromachined electrode arrays is introduced. The tuning of the electrical, electrochemical and mechanical properties of these patternable electrodes for applications in bio-electrical signal recording and stimulation, and results from in-vivo testing of these glassy carbon microelectrode arrays is reported, demonstrating a quantifiable superior performance compared to metal electrodes. Also the merits of high aspect ratio 3D C-MEMS/C-NEMS electrodes is made abundantly clear. When using carbon Interdigitated Electrode Arrays (IDEAS) the lower limits of detection (LODs) are often equivalent or better that those of the much more complicated and expensive optical fluorescence sensing schemes.
Suspensions Suspended: Do Changes to High School Suspension Policies Change Suspension Rates?

ABSTRACT In recent years, the frequent use of suspensions and the racial disparities in their application, particularly for nonviolent behaviors, has created a maelstrom of public pressure for schools to adjust their suspension practices. In an era of increasing institutional accountability for schools, there is evidence that schools may be responsive to policy shifts when they are under institutional pressure to do so. Several school districts have recently revised their out-of-school suspension policies, but researchers know little about (a) if these changes in policy actually change students’ odds of suspension and (b) if so, how these changes might shift racial disproportionality in suspensions. This analysis examines the recent removal of suspensions for low-level infractions from the formal school discipline policy of a large, urban district. I use student-level data to compare the frequency and disproportionality of suspensions before and after the discipline code change. Findings suggest that although suspension rates decrease overall, multiple suspensions per student are more likely. With regard to disproportionality, black girls and white boys are more likely than expected to receive a first suspension in the post period as well. These findings highlight the importance of exploring heterogeneity in outcomes resulting from potential unintended consequences of policy change.
Enhancing the scalability of many-core systems towards utilizing fine-grain parallelism in task-based programming models

In the past few years, it has been foreseeable that Moore’s law is coming to an end. This law, based on the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated chip doubles every 18-24 months, served as a roadmap for the semiconductors industry. On the verge of its end due to the huge increase in integrated chips power density, a new era in computing systems has begun. In this era, a core’s single performance is no longer the most important parameter, but the performance of the whole multicore system. It is an era where multiplicity and heterogeneity of computing units became the norm in state-of-the-art systems on chips (SoCs), not the exception. Although the problem of programmability of such complex systems has been addressed in both academia and industry, the pace at which more integration of processing cores on chip was faster than that of bringing user applications to adapt and scale well on these chips. New programming models emerged trying to bridge the gap between programming complexity and well-utilization of the multicore systems, with their various available resources. One promising approach is the dataflow task-based programming model, where an application is broken down to smaller execution units called tasks, which will dynamically be scheduled to run on the available resources according to data dependences between those tasks. However, this approach has an overhead as its runtime system needs considerable amount of computational power to track dependences between tasks and build the task graph, decide on ready tasks, schedule them on idle cores, and upon task completion, kick off dependent tasks, all this performed dynamically at runtime. Although dataflow task-based programming provides a solution to the programmability problem of multicore systems, its runtime overhead, in practice, has limited the scalability of applications programmed using this programming model, especially when the tasks are fine-grain, and/or have complex task graphs.
With a little help from my friends

A typical person has numerous online friends that, according to studies, the person often consults for opinions and advice. However, public broadcasting a question to all friends risks social capital when repeated too often, is not tolerant to topic sensitivity, and can result in no response, as the message is lost in a myriad of status updates. Direct messaging is more personal and avoids these pitfalls, but requires manual selection of friends to contact, which can be time consuming and challenging. A user may have difficulty guessing which of their numerous online friends can provide a high quality and timely response. We demonstrate a working system that addresses these issues by returning an ordered subset of friends predicting (a) near-term availability, (b) willingness to respond and (c) topical knowledge, given a query. The combination of these three aspects are unique to our solution, and all are critical to the problem of obtaining timely and relevant responses. Our system acts as a decision aid - we give insight into why each friend was recommended and let the user decide whom to contact.
In vitro and in vivo protective effects of three mycotoxin adsorbents against ochratoxin A in broiler chickens

Abstract 1. The objective of this study was to investigate in vitro and in vivo (in broiler chickens) ochratoxin A (OTA) adsorption efficiency of three different adsorbents: inorganic (modified zeolite); organic (esterified glucomannans) and mixed (inorganic and organic components plus enzymes). 2. The aim of the study was to investigate which of these adsorbents provided the best protection against the presence of residues of OTA in the pectoral muscle and liver of broilers given an OTA-contaminated diet. In addition, it was important to test and compare the results of adsorbent efficiency using two different in vitro methods. 3. The results from classical in vitro investigations carried out in the artificial intestinal fluid, showed that the inorganic adsorbent (Mz), exhibited the highest adsorption, having adsorbed 80.86 ± 1.85% of OTA, whereas average in vitro adsorption abilities of organic (30.52 ± 3.50%) and mixed (32.00 ± 2.60%) adsorbents were significantly lower. 4. In the investigation of absorption in everted sacs of broiler duodenal segments (Everted Duodenal Sacs Procedure), higher OTA adsorption in gut was exhibited by organic adsorbent, 74.26 ± 4.48%. Furthermore, the mean adsorption efficiency of mixed and inorganic adsorbent was 65.26 ± 4.76% and 45.75 ± 7.14%, respectively. 5. In the in vivo investigation, broilers were fed for 21 d on diets containing 2 mg/kg of OTA and supplemented with inorganic (Mz), organic (Ms) or mixed adsorbent (Mf) at the recommended concentration of 2 g/kg of feed. All three adsorbents significantly decreased OTA residue concentrations in the pectoral muscle and livers, but the order of effectiveness was mixed > organic > inorganic. The most efficient was the mixed adsorbent which decreased residue concentration by 72.50% in pectoral muscle and 94.47% in livers. 6. The Everted Duodenal Sac in vitro method provided results similar to those obtained in the in vivo study. However, further studies are required to investigate the efficiencies of adsorbents against various mycotoxins using this method.
50 Hz hippocampal stimulation in refractory epilepsy: Higher level of basal glutamate predicts greater release of glutamate

The effect of electrical stimulation on brain glutamate release in humans is unknown. Glutamate is elevated at baseline in the epileptogenic hippocampus of patients with refractory epilepsy, and increases during spontaneous seizures. We examined the effect of 50 Hz stimulation on glutamate release and its relationship to interictal levels in the hippocampus of patients with epilepsy. In addition, we measured basal and stimulated glutamate levels in a subset of these patients where stimulation elicited a seizure.
Proteomic analysis of pollination-induced corolla senescence in petunia

Senescence represents the last phase of petal development during which macromolecules and organelles are degraded and nutrients are recycled to developing tissues. To understand better the post-transcriptional changes regulating petal senescence, a proteomic approach was used to profile protein changes during the senescence of Petunia×hybrida ‘Mitchell Diploid’ corollas. Total soluble proteins were extracted from unpollinated petunia corollas at 0, 24, 48, and 72 h after flower opening and at 24, 48, and 72 h after pollination. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) was used to identify proteins that were differentially expressed in non-senescing (unpollinated) and senescing (pollinated) corollas, and image analysis was used to determine which proteins were up- or down-regulated by the experimentally determined cut-off of 2.1-fold for P <0.05. One hundred and thirty-three differentially expressed protein spots were selected for sequencing. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used to determine the identity of these proteins. Searching translated EST databases and the NCBI non-redundant protein database, it was possible to assign a putative identification to greater than 90% of these proteins. Many of the senescence up-regulated proteins were putatively involved in defence and stress responses or macromolecule catabolism. Some proteins, not previously characterized during flower senescence, were identified, including an orthologue of the tomato abscisic acid stress ripening protein 4 (ASR4). Gene expression patterns did not always correlate with protein expression, confirming that both proteomic and genomic approaches will be required to obtain a detailed understanding of the regulation of petal senescence.
Protecting our patients by protecting ourselves

Background: With recent expansions to scope of practice that have allowed Canadian pharmacists to play a larger role in administering influenza vaccinations to the public, it is important that pharmacists themselves meet Canadian guidelines recommending that 80% of health care professionals and 100% of vaccinators receive an annual influenza vaccination. Unvaccinated health care professionals pose an infection risk to patients they serve and are at an increased risk of infection themselves. Methods: An online, anonymous survey was sent to Ontario community pharmacists to determine whether they had received the influenza vaccination during the 2013–2014 influenza season. All significant univariate chi-square analysis respondent characteristics were included in a multivariate regression analysis model to determine predictors of vaccination status. Results: A total of 780 pharmacists completed the survey (18.1% response rate), which showed that 7 in 10 Ontario community pharmacists received the influenza vaccine. Those certified to immunize were nearly 3 times more likely to have received the influenza vaccine than those not certified (81.6% versus 61.2%, respectively). Discussion: Having 70% of Ontario community pharmacists vaccinated against influenza is both an accomplishment and an opportunity to improve vaccination rates. While similar to the influenza immunization rates of other health care professions, Ontario community pharmacists did not meet Public Health Canada’s recommendations. Comprehensive worksite programs, including promotion, education and convenient access to influenza vaccination at no cost, could increase community pharmacist influenza vaccination rates. Conclusion: The authors issue a call to arms to encourage all pharmacists to receive the influenza vaccine to protect the public and themselves.
A flow calculus of mwp-bounds for complexity analysis

We present a method for certifying that the values computed by an imperative program will be bounded by polynomials in the program's inputs. To this end, we introduce <i>mwp</i>-matrices and define a semantic relation ⊧ C : <i>M</i>, where C is a program and <i>M</i> is an <i>mwp</i>-matrix. It follows straightforwardly from our definitions that there exists <i>M</i> such that ⊧ C : <i>M</i> holds iff every value computed by C is bounded by a polynomial in the inputs. Furthermore, we provide a syntactical proof calculus and define the relation ⊢ C : <i>M</i> to hold iff there exists a derivation in the calculus where C : <i>M</i> is the bottom line. We prove that ⊢ C : <i>M</i> implies ⊧ C : <i>M</i>. By means of exhaustive proof search, an algorithm can decide if there exists <i>M</i> such that the relation ⊢ C : <i>M</i> holds, and thus, our results yield a computational method.
MicroRNA-22 Regulates Hypoxia Signaling in Colon Cancer Cells

MicroRNAs (MiRNAs) are short, non-coding RNA that regulate a variety of cellular functions by suppressing target protein expression. We hypothesized that a set of microRNA regulate tumor responses to hypoxia by inhibiting components of the hypoxia signaling pathway. We found that miR-22 expression in human colon cancer is lower than in normal colon tissue. We also found that miR-22 controls hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) expression in the HCT116 colon cancer cell line. Over-expression of miR-22 inhibits HIF-1α expression, repressing vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) production during hypoxia. Conversely, knockdown of endogenous miR-22 enhances hypoxia induced expression of HIF-1α and VEGF. The conditioned media from cells over-expressing miR-22 contain less VEGF protein than control cells, and also induce less endothelial cell growth and invasion, suggesting miR-22 in adjacent cells influences endothelial cell function. Taken together, our data suggest that miR-22 might have an anti-angiogenic effect in colon cancer.
EARS: Electromyographical Automatic Recognition of Speech

In this paper, we present our research on automatic speech recognition of surface electromyographic signals that are generated by the human articulatory muscles. With parallel recorded audible speech and electromyographic signals, experiments are conducted to show the anticipatory behavior of electromyographic signals with respect to speech signals. Additionally, we demonstrate how to develop phone-based speech recognizers with carefully designed electromyographic feature extraction methods. We show that articulatory feature (AF) classifiers can also benefit from the novel feature, which improve the F-score of the AF classifiers from 0.467 to 0.686. With a stream architecture, the AF classifiers are then integrated into the decoding framework. Overall, the word error rate improves from 86.8% to 29.9% on a 100 word vocabulary recognition task.
Incremental Evolutionary Design of TSK Fuzzy Controllers

This paper proposes a novel method for the incremental design and optimization of first order Tagaki-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy controllers by means of an evolutionary algorithm. Starting with a single linear control law, the controller structure is gradually refined during the evolution. Structural augmentation is intertwined with evolutionary adaptation of the additional parameters with the objective not only to improve the control performance but also to maximize the stability region of the nonlinear system. From the viewpoint of optimization the proposed method follows a divide-and-conquer approach. Additional rules and their parameters are introduced into the controller structure in a neutral fashion, such that the adaptations of the less complex controller in the previous stage are initially preserved. The proposed scheme is evaluated at the task of TSK fuzzy controller design for the upswing and stabilization of a rotational inverted pendulum. In the first case, the objective is a time optimal controller that upswings the pendulum in to the upper equilibrium point in shortest time. The stabilizing controller is designed as a state optimal controller. In a second application the optimization method is applied to the design of a fuzzy controller for vision-based mobile robot navigation. The results demonstrate that the incremental scheme generates solutions that are similar in control performance to pure parameter optimization of only the gains of a TSK system. Even more important, whereas direct optimization of control systems with more than 35 rules fails to identify a stabilizing control law, the incremental scheme optimizes fuzzy state-space partitions and gains for hundreds of rules.
Probabilistic Reasoning with Maximum Entropy - The System PIT (system description)

1 Abstract We present a system for common sense reasoning based on propositional logic, the probability calculus and the concept of model-quantiication. The task of this system PIT (for Probability Induction Tool) is to deliver decisions under incomplete knowledge but to keep the necessary additional assumptions as minimal as possible. Following this task it shows non-monotonic behavior in two ways: Non-monotonic decisions can be the result of reasoning in a single probability model (via conditionalization) or in a set of probability models (via additional principles of rational decisions, justi-ed by model-quantiication). As the concept of model-quantiication delivers a precise semantics we know the corresponding decisions to make sense in many problems of common sense reasoning. We will show this with an example from default reasoning and an example of medical diagnosis. 2 Introduction Propositional logic is a well-researched area of science and allows the speciication of many kinds of exact knowledge. However it lacks the features necessary for modeling most real world situations. Especially there are three features missing from propositional logic for modeling common sense reasoning: The ability to describe uncertain knowledge, the ability to support plausible reasoning under incomplete knowledge and a appropriate modeling of the common sense if-then. On the other hand reasoning with probability models is also well-researched, incorporates reasoning with uncertainty and has a mature concept for the common sense conditional (by "conditionalization"). But as the language is very ne grained (context-sensitive), it lacks the ability to deal with incomplete knowledge. We therefore enrich the probability calculus with additional (context-sensitive, global) constraints (resp. principles) which are able to support rational decisions based on incomplete knowledge. These principles have their common source in the concept of model-quantiication (see section 4.1) and nd their dense representation in the (well-known) principle of Maximum Entropy (see 10]). As this principles form the theoretical base for our system we continue by describing the properties of our language in connection to non-monotonic reasoning (see sec. 3) sketching the diierent principles of model quan-tiication, their relation and their connection to eecient implementations (see section 4) explaining the parts of system and their tasks (see section 5) giving a set of examples for working with the system (see section 6) describing the necessary resources and some url's for additional information (see section 8). 3 The Language and its relation to Nonmonotonic Reasoning Combining propositional logic with probability theory we specify a range of …
Inclusion of Underserved Residents in City Technology Planning

Cities are increasingly integrating urban technologies into their infrastructures to improve municipal services, civic engagement, and quality of life for residents. Research suggests that technologies implemented in communities can worsen existing inequalities, yet there is little understanding of what underserved residents think about urban technologies or how they engage with their cities about technology policies or practices. Based on two technology forums held in underserved communities, we found that residents are motivated to participate in city technology planning because they believe technology impacts the economic and social health of their communities and because they are wary of the city»s intentions behind certain urban technologies and policies. However, avenues for such engagement with the city were not accessible to our participants. We conclude that residents» participation in existing forms of governance poses an opportunity for city officials and those in underserved communities to collaboratively build urban technologies that benefit all.
Silverleaf Whitefly Induces Salicylic Acid Defenses and Suppresses Effectual Jasmonic Acid Defenses1[W][OA]

The basal defenses important in curtailing the development of the phloem-feeding silverleaf whitefly (Bemisia tabaci type B; SLWF) on Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) were investigated. Sentinel defense gene RNAs were monitored in SLWF-infested and control plants. Salicylic acid (SA)-responsive gene transcripts accumulated locally (PR1, BGL2, PR5, SID2, EDS5, PAD4) and systemically (PR1, BGL2, PR5) during SLWF nymph feeding. In contrast, jasmonic acid (JA)- and ethylene-dependent RNAs (PDF1.2, VSP1, HEL, THI2.1, FAD3, ERS1, ERF1) were repressed or not modulated in SLWF-infested leaves. To test for a role of SA and JA pathways in basal defense, SLWF development on mutant and transgenic lines that constitutively activate or impair defense pathways was determined. By monitoring the percentage of SLWF nymphs in each instar, we show that mutants that activate SA defenses (cim10) or impair JA defenses (coi1) accelerated SLWF nymphal development. Reciprocally, mutants that activate JA defenses (cev1) or impair SA defenses (npr1, NahG) slowed SLWF nymphal development. Furthermore, when npr1 plants, which do not activate downstream SA defenses, were treated with methyl jasmonate, a dramatic delay in nymph development was observed. Collectively, these results showed that SLWF-repressed, JA-regulated defenses were associated with basal defense to the SLWF.