Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthesis and Characterization of PbS Nano Sheets

Dr. Liangfeng Sun, Advisor Colloidal quantum dots have emerged as an important material for optoelectronic devices due to their tunable optical properties originated at quantum confinement. Charge transfer in the thin film made of colloidal quantum dots for a device is always hindered by the presence of spacing ligands among them, since they are typically insulators. Making two-dimensional nanosheets can effectively reduce these hindrances, yet retain the tunable quantum confinement in one dimension. It is expected that optoelectronic devices made from such nanosheets will have better performance due to the improved charge carrier mobility. In our recent work, two-dimensional PbS nanosheets (a few nanometers thick with lateral size of a few hundred nanometers) have been successfully synthesized through oriented attachments of PbS nanocrystals. Nanosheets of different thickness were synthesized by control of the reaction temperature. Their energy gaps were revealed by optical absorption and emission measurements. The dependence of the energy gap on the thickness (L) of the nanosheets follows a 1/L law, demonstrating perfect quasi-twodimensional semiconductor systems with pure one-dimensional confinement. The distinct properties of PbS nanosheets make them valuable for fundamental studies, as well as for applications in field-effect transistors, sensors, and photovoltaic devices.
Visfatin expression in gingival tissues of chronic periodontitis and aggressive periodontitis patients: An immunohistochemical analysis

Background: Visfatin, also known as nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase, has been suggested as a pro-inflammatory and immunomodulating marker for periodontitis. The aim of this study was an immunohistochemical analysis of visfatin in gingival tissues of patients with chronic periodontitis and aggressive periodontitis. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study based on clinical evaluation and inclusion and exclusion criteria. Twenty patients with generalized chronic periodontitis, 13 patients with generalized aggressive periodontitis, and 20 periodontally healthy individuals enrolled. Gingival tissue samples were obtained during periodontal flap surgery and crown lengthening surgery in periodontal patients and healthy group, respectively. Tissue samples were transferred to a pathology laboratory to determine the degree of inflammatory infiltration by hematoxylin and eosin staining and the level of visfatin expression by immunohistochemistry. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 statistical software and paired t-test, Mann–Whitney test, and Spearman rank correlation coefficient. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Inflammation grading and visfatin expression were significantly higher in periodontally diseased gingiva compared to the control group (P < 0.05). However, no significant difference was found between two diseased groups. The relationship between inflammation grading and visfatin expression in aggressive periodontitis group was statistically significant, positive and relatively strong (P = 0.025, r = 0.617). However, no significant relationship has been found between visfatin expression and inflammation grading in the chronic periodontitits and control groups (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Visfatin expression was increased in gingival tissues of chronic periodontitis and aggressive periodontitis patients. Hence, visfatin may have a role in the etiopathogenesis of chronic periodontitis and aggressive periodontitis.
Testing for normality.

I. Confidence Intervals for μ For continuous data, we can easily obtain confidence intervals for the population mean, μ. Create a histogram for the variable of interest by following the steps “Analyze” then “Distribution”. In the distribution window, click on the red triangle next to the variable, and choose “Confidence Interval”. You are now given options on different αlevels. Choose the level you prefer, and the confidence interval will appear in the distribution window. If your data contains two different groups (as is the case with our “Big Class” data set, which contains boys and girls), you might want to create two confidence intervals, one for each group. Create separate histograms by specifying a “by” variable in the distribution dialogue window (in the “Big Class” data set, this would be the variable “sex”). When that is done, simply create a confidence interval for each group. If you want to compare the two intervals, you have to remember to choose the same confidence level! The procedure of making confidence intervals is based on the assumption that the data is a random sample from a population with a normal population frequency curve. We will discuss different ways to check if this is true.
What is the true in vitro potency of oxytetracycline for the pig pneumonia pathogens Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and Pasteurella multocida?

The pharmacodynamics of oxytetracycline was determined for pig respiratory tract pathogens, Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and Pasteurella multocida. Indices of potency were determined for the following: (i) two matrices, broth and pig serum; (ii) five overlapping sets of twofold dilutions; and (iii) a high strength starting culture. For A. pleuropneumoniae, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was similar for the two matrices, but for P. multocida, differences were marked and significantly different. MIC and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) serum: broth ratios for A. pleuropneumoniae were 0.83:1 and 1.22:1, respectively, and corresponding values for P. multocida were 22.0:1 and 7.34:1. For mutant prevention concentration (MPC) serum: broth ratios were 0.79:1 (A. pleuropneumoniae) and 20.9:1 (P. multocida). These ratios were corrected for serum protein binding to yield fraction unbound (fu) serum: broth MIC ratios of 0.24:1 (A. pleuropneumoniae) and 6.30:1 (P. multocida). Corresponding fu serum: broth ratios for MPC were almost identical, 0.23:1 and 6.08:1. These corrections for protein binding did not account for potency differences between serum and broth for either species; based on fu serum MICs, potency in serum was approximately fourfold greater than predicted for A. pleuropneumoniae and sixfold smaller than predicted for P. multocida. For both broth and serum and both bacterial species, MICs were also dependent on initial inoculum strength. The killing action of oxytetracycline had the characteristics of codependency for both A. pleuropneumoniae and P. multocida in both growth media. The in vitro potency of oxytetracycline in pig serum is likely to be closer to the in vivo plasma/serum concentration required for efficacy than potency estimated in broths.
Utilizing Flyash For Color Removal of Dye Effluents

Table I: Chemical characteristics of flyash obtained from different sources. Flyash is a waste substance from thermal power plants, steel mills, etc. Chemical Tara Shriram Narmada that is found in abundance. Waste utili- characteristics zation is also gaining in importance for (%) controlling air, land and water pollution. LOI 16.16 8.64 Since flyash is a rich source of silica, 1.30
Ripple polystyrene nano-pattern induced by KrF laser

The study of excimer laser treatment of polystyrene surface was performed. The influence of laser fluence and number of laser pulses on surface chemistry and morphology was determined. The surface morphology and roughness were studied with atomic force microscopy. Surface wettability and aging studies were characterized by the water contact angle measurements. Surface oxygen concentration and chemistry were evaluated from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and zeta potential measurements. The optimal polystyrene treatment parameters for the most regular pattern were determined. The foils with optimal ripple pattern were subsequently sputtered with gold nano-layers of 100 nm thickness. It was found that the surface roughness of PS strongly depends on number of pulses. The aging study revealed that the higher contact angle achieve the samples treated with higher laser fluence. The deposition of gold nano-layer increases the surface roughness of nano-patterned surface. It was proved that the oxygen concentration is significantly influenced by the KrF laser exposure.
Refining estimates of availability bias to improve assessments of the conservation status of an endangered dolphin

Estimation of visibility bias is critical to accurately compute abundance of wild populations. The franciscana, Pontoporia blainvillei, is considered the most threatened small cetacean in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. Aerial surveys are considered the most effective method to estimate abundance of this species, but many existing estimates have been considered unreliable because they lack proper estimation of correction factors for visibility bias. In this study, helicopter surveys were conducted to determine surfacing-diving intervals of franciscanas and to estimate availability for aerial platforms. Fifteen hours were flown and 101 groups of 1 to 7 franciscanas were monitored, resulting in a sample of 248 surface-dive cycles. The mean surfacing interval and diving interval times were 16.10 seconds (SE = 9.74) and 39.77 seconds (SE = 29.06), respectively. Availability was estimated at 0.39 (SE = 0.01), a value 16–46% greater than estimates computed from diving parameters obtained from boats or from land. Generalized mixed-effects models were used to investigate the influence of biological and environmental predictors on the proportion of time franciscana groups are visually available to be seen from an aerial platform. These models revealed that group size was the main factor influencing the proportion at surface. The use of negatively biased estimates of availability results in overestimation of abundance, leads to overly optimistic assessments of extinction probabilities and to potentially ineffective management actions. This study demonstrates that estimates of availability must be computed from suitable platforms to ensure proper conservation decisions are implemented to protect threatened species such as the franciscana.
Generating neuron-like cells from BM-derived mesenchymal stromal cells in vitro.

BACKGROUND The multipotency of stromal cells has been studied extensively. It has been reported that mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are capable of differentiating into cells of multilineage. Different methods and reagents have been used to induce the differentiation of MSC. We investigated the efficacy of different growth factors in inducing MSC differentiation into neurons. METHODS MSC from human BM were isolated and cultured in media supplemented with 10% FBS. These cells were identified and later induced to differentiate into neuron-like cells using different neurotrophic factors. Three different growth factors were used, either alone or in combination: brain-derived neurotrophic factor, epidermal growth factor and neural growth factor. RESULTS After 10 days of culture, MSC showed neuron-like morphologic changes. Immunostaining showed that these cells expressed markers for neurons (growth-associated protein-43, neuron-specific nuclear protein and neurofilament 200 kDa) and expression of these markers suggested the transition of immature stages to more mature stages of neuron-like cells. DISCUSSION Our results show that BM-derived MSC can differentiate not only into target cells of mesodermal origin but also neuron-like cells of ectodermal origin. The findings show that a combination of growth factors is more effective in inducing MSC into neuron-like cells.
A Method of Finding Predictor Genes for a Particular Disease Using a Clustering Algorithm

Clustering Algorithms are nowadays really important tools in microarray data analysis. The different clustering algorithm generally used in biological science does not take into consideration the underlying probability distribution of the data. In this sense, they are heuristic in nature. In this work we proposed a clustering algorithm based on EM Algorithm. It gives 28% less misclassification than the K-means algorithm (which is mostly use in Bio science). We have also shown on a real data set that this algorithm can be efficiently used for detecting the genes which are responsible for a particular disease.
Eurographics Symposium on Geometry Processing (2007) Unconstrained Isosurface Extraction on Arbitrary Octrees

This paper presents a novel algorithm for generating a watertight level-set from an octree. We show that the level-set can be efficiently extracted regardless of the topology of the octree or the values assigned to the vertices. The key idea behind our approach is the definition of a set of binary edge-trees derived from the octree's topology. We show that the edge-trees can be used define the positions of the isovalue-crossings in a consistent fashion and to resolve inconsistencies that may arise when a single edge has multiple isovalue-crossings. Using the edge-trees, we show that a provably watertight mesh can be extracted from the octree without necessitating the refinement of nodes or modification of their values.
Molecular lock regulates binding of glycine to a primitive NMDA receptor

Significance Glycine-activated ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) encoded in ctenophore genomes are evolutionary precursors to NMDA receptors, which play important roles in synaptic plasticity. Ctenophore iGluRs feature a distinct interdomain salt bridge in the ligand-binding domain, a molecular lock, that thus far has not been found in iGluRs of other organisms. We use a combination of crystallographic, biochemical, electrophysiological, and computational approaches to elucidate the role of this molecular lock in a ctenophore iGluR. We find that perturbations to the lock can tune receptor kinetics and thermodynamics over very broad ranges. We also find that the strategic location of the lock may be the basis for the ligand-binding domain's extraordinarily high affinity for glycine. The earliest metazoan ancestors of humans include the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi. The genome of this comb jelly encodes homologs of vertebrate ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) that are distantly related to glycine-activated NMDA receptors and that bind glycine with unusually high affinity. Using ligand-binding domain (LBD) mutants for electrophysiological analysis, we demonstrate that perturbing a ctenophore-specific interdomain Arg-Glu salt bridge that is notably absent from vertebrate AMPA, kainate, and NMDA iGluRs greatly increases the rate of recovery from desensitization, while biochemical analysis reveals a large decrease in affinity for glycine. X-ray crystallographic analysis details rearrangements in the binding pocket stemming from the mutations, and molecular dynamics simulations suggest that the interdomain salt bridge acts as a steric barrier regulating ligand binding and that the free energy required to access open conformations in the glycine-bound LBD is largely responsible for differences in ligand affinity among the LBD variants.
A new model for supplier selection by an integrated method FAHP-IFTOPSIS

In a competitive environment, the selection of suppliers are the most critical issues facing manufacturing firms because the costs of raw materials and components may, in fact, comprise the major portion of a product’s final cost. Selecting an appropriate supplier can significantly reduce purchasing costs, decrease production lead time, increase customer satisfaction, and strengthen corporate competitiveness. In this paper an integrated supplier selection model is presented in which fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) method is used to determination of criteria weight and by using intuitionistic fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (IF-TOPSIS) method suppliers are ranked in a multiple criteria decision making frame work.
Service-oriented reference model for cyber-physical systems

syntax of the proposed CPS-DSL has been implemented as an Ecore-based meta-model [23]. Ecore meta-modeling language was originally developed as a part of Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) project [67]. Figure 6.7 shows a the simplified version of the Ecore-based meta-model for the proposed CPS-DSL.
Knockout of the Arp2/3 complex in epidermis causes a psoriasis-like disease hallmarked by hyperactivation of transcription factor Nrf2

The Arp2/3 complex assembles branched actin filaments, which are key to many cellular processes, but its organismal roles remain poorly understood. Here, we employed conditional Arpc4 knockout mice to study the function of the Arp2/3 complex in the epidermis. We found that depletion of the Arp2/3 complex by knockout of Arpc4 results in skin abnormalities at birth that evolve into a severe psoriasis-like disease hallmarked by hyperactivation of transcription factor Nrf2. Knockout of Arpc4 in cultured keratinocytes was sufficient to induce nuclear accumulation of Nrf2, upregulation of Nrf2 target genes and decreased filamentous actin levels. Furthermore, pharmacological inhibition of the Arp2/3 complex unmasked the role of branched actin filaments in Nrf2 regulation. Consistent with this, we revealed that Nrf2 associates with the actin cytoskeleton in cells and binds to filamentous actin in vitro. Finally, we discovered that Arpc4 is downregulated in both human and mouse psoriatic epidermis. Thus, the Arp2/3 complex affects keratinocyte shape and transcriptome through an actin-based cell-autonomous mechanism that influences epidermal morphogenesis and homeostasis. Highlighted Article: Knockout of Arpc4 in mouse epidermis reveals that the Arp2/3 complex controls keratinocyte shape and transcriptome through an actin-based cell-autonomous mechanism that can influence epidermal morphogenesis and homeostasis.
Quantification of interface visual complexity

Designers strive for enjoyable user experience (UX) and put a significant effort into making graphical user interfaces (GUI) both usable and beautiful. Our goal is to minimize their effort: with this purpose in mind, we have been studying automatic metrics of GUI qualities. These metrics could enable designers to iterate their designs more quickly. We started from the psychological findings that people tend to prefer simpler things. We then assumed visual complexity determinants also determine visual aesthetics and outlined eight of them as belonging to three dimensions: information amount (visual clutter and color variability), information organization (symmetry, grid, ease-of-grouping and prototypicality), and information discriminability (contour density and figure-ground contrast). We investigated five determinants (visual clutter, symmetry, contour density, figure-ground contrast and color variability) and proposed six associated automatic metrics. These metrics take screenshots of GUI as input and can thus be applied to any type of GUI. We validated the metrics through a user study: we gathered the ratings of immediate impressions of GUI visual complexity and aesthetics, and correlated them with the output of the metrics. The output explained up to 51% of aesthetics ratings and 50% of complexity ratings. This promising result could be further extended towards the creation of tLight, our automatic GUI evaluation tool.
Light-Induced Variability in Development of Forensically Important Blow Fly Phormia regina (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

Abstract The use of the postmortem interval (PMI) in practical applications of forensic entomology is based upon developmental data of blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) generated under controlled environmental conditions. Careful review of the published forensic entomology data sets showed that experimental (environmental) parameters differed between studies. Despite the differences in study design, there are no empirical data on the effect of photoperiod on blow fly development; yet, photoperiod has been shown to alter some insect development and behavior among noncalliphorids. Consequently, will differences in photoperiod alter the developmental times of calliphorids, and thereby alter PMI estimates? To answer this question, we used a replicated design with precise temperature measurement to examine the effects of photoperiod on the forensically important blow fly Phormia regina (Meigen). We concluded that inaccurate temperature recordings by using set-chamber temperatures over rearing-container temperatures would have overshadowed any affect light had on development. Second, constant light increased variation in overall adult developmental time and significantly delayed development compared with cyclic light. Finally, not accounting for delayed development induced by photoperiod underestimated the initial empirical estimate of the PMI. These sources of variation need to be included in forensic estimates because this variation can compromise predictions of PMI based upon current data sets. Without pinpointing optimal photoperiods with which to test development, we must assume that potentially large sources of variability exist within current estimates of the PMI.
A review of deep learning in image recognition

Deep learning has been the core topic in machine learning and convolutional neural network is one of the most prominent approaches. Convolutional neural network has won numerous competitions in recent years. It has outstanding results in image recognition. We review the different deep learning approaches which have been used in the field of image classification and localization.
Electrodeposition of Solar Cell Grade Silicon in High Temperature Molten Salts

Abstract Silicon is the most common material used in solar cells. High cost of silicon restricts the widely use of PV power. In order to make solar cells more accessible and affordable, it is strongly needed to develop a new and low-cost production process of solar energy silicon (SoG-Si). Electrodeposition of SoG-Si films appears to be a cost saving technique since solidification and sawing steps which contribute significantly to the overall cost of solar cells will be bypassed. Electrodeposition of SoG-Si has been evaluated during the last three decades, and some of them have shown promising results. Thermodynamic and kinetic considerations which relate to the electrodeposition of silicon are discussed, and progresses towards the developments of the electrodeposition of silicon in high temperature molten salts are reviewed in this paper.
Teleoperation control for bimanual robots based on RBFNN and wave variable

In this paper, a dual arm control method in a tele-operation system is introduced. For a bimanual robot, moving a common object precisely requires real-time cooperation between the two arms. In such conditions the force interaction including the internal forces applied on the object must be taken into account. Therefore the dynamics models for master device, slave robot and the object are first analysed. Because the presence of the uncertainties in the dynamics model of the remote robot, a neural network method is used for compensation in the slave part. In order to guarantee the stability of the teleoperation system, the wave variable approach is employed in the communication part. Then the controllers in both the master and the slave part are designed based on their dynamics models. Then the tracking convergence and system stability are proven by the Lyapunov function. Several simulation experiments are carried out to show the good performance of trajectory tracking and force reflection.
Physiological and Oncogenic Aurora-A Pathway

Aurora family of protein kinases have emerged as crucial factors of, not only mitosis and cytokinesis, but also human carcinogenesis. Among these family members is Aurora-A that is frequently overexpressed in varieties of human cancer. Both in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated that Aurora-A induces tumorigenesis through genome instability. These studies have further shown that cell signaling cross-talk between Aurora-A and other cellular proteins are essential for fully-transformed phenotypes. This review summarizes recent progress of Aurora-A-associated carcinogenesis.