Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of Residual Stress and Heat Affected Zone on Fatigue Failure of Welded Piping Joints

CHENG, PEI-YUAN. Influence of Residual Stress and Heat Affected Zone on Fatigue Failure of Welded Piping Joints. (Under the direction of Dr. Tasnim Hassan.) In recent decades, some unexpected fatigue failure occurred in welded joint of metal structures under cyclic loading. In many cases, the cause for the failure could not be detected. A study at NC State University revealed that welding procedure could be one of the factors that was not appropriately considered in current design methodologies. The welding procedure can influence the strain response near weld toe in two ways: one is by generating residual stress, and the other is changing material properties in the heat affected zone (HAZ). It was the primary objective in this investigation to determine the influence of these two factors on strain response by conducting experiments and performing numerical simulations of welded piping joints. In the experimental study a series of residual stress data were measured, using x-ray and neutron diffraction techniques, for welded piping joints. The measured results revealed that the initial maximum compressive residual stress of stainless steel piping joints is higher than the yield stress of base metal. Moreover, the axial residual stresses of stainless steel piping joints are mostly relaxed after 5 cycles. The change of mechanical material properties due to high temperature exposure was studied by conducting experiments on tubular specimens. It was obtained that some mechanical material properties changed after subjecting to high temperature cycles, and the changed material was correlated to the peak temperatures. A modified thermo-mechanical material heterogeneity model was then developed to improve the initial residual stress simulation at the weld toe. The heterogeneous material properties coupled with the Chaboche model were used for subsequent fatigue response simulation. Quarter-point elements were applied at the stress concentration locations. The analysis results showed that fatigue response and residual stress relaxation can be simulated well. Final two simulations in this research showed that the presence of initial residual stress influences strain amplitude and strain mean, both of which could influence the fatigue life of welded joints. Influence of Residual Stress and Heat Affected Zone on Fatigue Failure of Welded Piping Joints
Cardiovascular Event Prediction by Machine Learning: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Rationale: Machine learning may be useful to characterize cardiovascular risk, predict outcomes, and identify biomarkers in population studies. Objective: To test the ability of random survival forests, a machine learning technique, to predict 6 cardiovascular outcomes in comparison to standard cardiovascular risk scores. Methods and Results: We included participants from the MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis). Baseline measurements were used to predict cardiovascular outcomes over 12 years of follow-up. MESA was designed to study progression of subclinical disease to cardiovascular events where participants were initially free of cardiovascular disease. All 6814 participants from MESA, aged 45 to 84 years, from 4 ethnicities, and 6 centers across the United States were included. Seven-hundred thirty-five variables from imaging and noninvasive tests, questionnaires, and biomarker panels were obtained. We used the random survival forests technique to identify the top-20 predictors of each outcome. Imaging, electrocardiography, and serum biomarkers featured heavily on the top-20 lists as opposed to traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Age was the most important predictor for all-cause mortality. Fasting glucose levels and carotid ultrasonography measures were important predictors of stroke. Coronary Artery Calcium score was the most important predictor of coronary heart disease and all atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease combined outcomes. Left ventricular structure and function and cardiac troponin-T were among the top predictors for incident heart failure. Creatinine, age, and ankle-brachial index were among the top predictors of atrial fibrillation. TNF-&agr; (tissue necrosis factor-&agr;) and IL (interleukin)-2 soluble receptors and NT-proBNP (N-Terminal Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide) levels were important across all outcomes. The random survival forests technique performed better than established risk scores with increased prediction accuracy (decreased Brier score by 10%–25%). Conclusions: Machine learning in conjunction with deep phenotyping improves prediction accuracy in cardiovascular event prediction in an initially asymptomatic population. These methods may lead to greater insights on subclinical disease markers without apriori assumptions of causality. Clinical Trial Registration: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00005487.
Molecular characterization of XopAG effector AvrGf2 from Xanthomonas fuscans ssp. aurantifolii in grapefruit.

Xanthomonas fuscans ssp. aurantifolii group C strains exhibit host specificity on different citrus species. The strains possess a type III effector, AvrGf2, belonging to the XopAG effector gene family, which restricts host range on citrus. We dissected the modular nature and mode of action of AvrGf2 in grapefruit resistance. XopAG effectors possess characteristic features, such as a chloroplast localization signal, a cyclophilin-binding domain characteristic amino acid sequence motif (GPLL) and a C-terminal domain-containing CLNAxYD. Mutation of GPLL to AASL in AvrGf2 abolished the elicitation of the hypersensitive response (HR), whereas mutation of only the first amino acid to SPLL delayed the HR in grapefruit. Yeast two-hybrid experiments showed strong interaction of AvrGf2 with grapefruit cyclophilin (GfCyp), whereas AvrGf2-SPLL and AvrGf2-AASL mutants showed weak and no interaction, respectively. Molecular modelling and in silico docking studies for the cyclophilin-AvrGf2 interaction predicted the binding of citrus cyclophilins (CsCyp, GfCyp) to hexameric peptides spanning the cyclophilin-binding domain of AvrGf2 and AvrGf2 mutants (VAGPLL, VASPLL and VAAASL) with affinities equivalent to or better than a positive control peptide (YSPSA) previously demonstrated to bind CsCyp. In addition, the C-terminal domain of XopAG family effectors contains a highly conserved motif, CLNAxYD, which was identified to be crucial for the induction of HR based on site-directed mutagenesis (CLNAxYD to CASAxYD). Our results suggest a model in which grapefruit cyclophilin promotes a conformational change in AvrGf2, thereby triggering the resistance response.
Cold formability prediction by the modified maximum force criterion with a non-associated Hill48 model accounting for anisotropic hardening

Experimental and numerical investigations on the characterisation and prediction of cold formability of a ferritic steel sheet are performed in this study. Tensile tests and Nakajima tests were performed for the plasticity characterisation and the forming limit diagram determination. In the numerical prediction, the modified maximum force criterion is selected as the localisation criterion. For the plasticity model, a non-associated formulation of the Hill48 model is employed. With the non-associated flow rule, the model can result in a similar predictive capability of stress and r-value directionality to the advanced non-quadratic associated models. To accurately characterise the anisotropy evolution during hardening, the anisotropic hardening is also calibrated and implemented into the model for the prediction of the formability.
Estimating Fine Particulate Matter Component Concentrations and Size Distributions Using Satellite-Retrieved Fractional Aerosol Optical Depth: Part 2—A Case Study

Abstract We use the fractional aerosol optical depth (AOD) values derived from Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) aerosol component measurements, along with aerosol transport model constraints, to estimate ground-level concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) mass and its major constituents in the continental United States. Regression models using fractional AODs predict PM2.5 mass and sulfate (SO4) concentrations in both the eastern and western United States, and nitrate (NO3) concentrations in the western United States reasonably well, compared with the available ground-level U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) measurements. These models show substantially improved predictive power when compared with similar models using total-column AOD as a single predictor, especially in the western United States. The relative contributions of the MISR aerosol components in these regression models are used to estimate size distributions of EPA PM2.5 species. This method captures the overall shapes of the size distributions of PM2.5 mass and SO4 particles in the east and west, and NO3 particles in the west. However, the estimated PM2.5 and SO4 mode diameters are smaller than those previously reported by monitoring studies conducted at ground level. This is likely due to the satellite sampling bias caused by the inability to retrieve aerosols through cloud cover, and the impact of particle hygroscopicity on measured particle size distributions at ground level.
Differing Requirements for MALT1 Function in Peripheral B Cell Survival and Differentiation

During a T cell-dependent immune response, formation of the germinal center (GC) is essential for the generation of high-affinity plasma cells and memory B cells. The canonical NF-κB pathway has been implicated in the initiation of GC reaction, and defects in this pathway have been linked to immune deficiencies. The paracaspase MALT1 plays an important role in regulating NF-κB activation upon triggering of Ag receptors. Although previous studies have reported that MALT1 deficiency abrogates the GC response, the relative contribution of B cells and T cells to the defective phenotype remains unclear. We used chimeric mouse models to demonstrate that MALT1 function is required in B cells for GC formation. This role is restricted to BCR signaling where MALT1 is critical for B cell proliferation and survival. Moreover, the proapoptotic signal transmitted in the absence of MALT1 is dominant to the prosurvival effects of T cell-derived stimuli. In addition to GC B cell differentiation, MALT1 is required for plasma cell differentiation, but not mitogenic responses. Lastly, we show that ectopic expression of Bcl-2 can partially rescue the GC phenotype in MALT1-deficient animals by prolonging the lifespan of BCR-activated B cells, but plasma cell differentiation and Ab production remain defective. Thus, our data uncover previously unappreciated aspects of MALT1 function in B cells and highlight its importance in humoral immunity.
KnotProt: a database of proteins with knots and slipknots

The protein topology database KnotProt, http://knotprot.cent. uw.edu. pl/, collects information about protein structures with open polypeptide chains forming knots or slipknots. The knotting complexity of the cataloged proteins is presented in the form of a matrix diagram that shows users the knot type of the entire polypeptide chain and of each of its subchains. The pattern visible in the matrix gives the knotting fingerprint of a given protein and permits users to determine, for example, the minimal length of the knotted regions (knot's core size) or the depth of a knot, i.e. how many amino acids can be removed from either end of the cataloged protein structure before converting it from a knot to a different type of knot. In addition, the database presents extensive information about the biological functions, families and fold types of proteins with non-trivial knotting. As an additional feature, the KnotProt database enables users to submit protein or polymer chains and generate their knotting fingerprints.
A Phase II Study of Tumor Ablation in Patients with Metastatic Sarcoma Stable on Chemotherapy

Abstract Lessons Learned. Ablation therapy appears to be a reasonably safe and effective approach to obtain a significant treatment‐free interval for a subset of patients with limited sites of metastatic disease for which systemic control can be obtained with six cycles of chemotherapy. Background. Metastatic sarcoma often becomes resistant to treatment by chemotherapy. There is sometimes prolonged stable disease from active chemotherapy that provides a window of opportunity for an intervention to prolong disease‐free survival. Materials and Methods. We performed a phase II study in patients with metastatic sarcoma who had been stable on six cycles of chemotherapy who then received ablation therapy to their residual disease. Histologies captured in this study included leiomyosarcoma, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor, pleiomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma, and myxoid liposarcoma. Sites ablated included lung metastases and retroperitoneal metastatic deposits. In this study, up to three lesions were ablated in any given interventional radiology session. After ablation, patients were not treated with any further therapy but were followed by surveillance imaging to determine progression‐free rate (PFR). Results. Although terminated early because of slow accrual, this study demonstrated a 3‐month PFR of 75% for this cohort of eight patients treated with ablation performed after completion of six cycles of chemotherapy with stable disease. Median progression‐free survival (PFS) was 19.74 months, and the median overall survival (OS) was not reached. Conclusion. Our data are the first prospective study to suggest that ablation therapy in selected patients who are stable on chemotherapy can provide a significant progression‐free interval off therapy and warrants further study in a randomized trial.
A dynamic three-dimensional display technique based on liquid crystal spatial light modulator

A dynamic three-dimensional (3D) display method based on Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) spatial light modulator is introduced in this paper. Sixty viewing-angles are set at regular intervals of six degrees along a complete circle in the horizontal plane, and phase holograms of three-dimensional virtual object are calculated under these viewing-angles by use of computational tomographic method as well as spatial coordinate transformation. Multi- kinoforms are calculated for each angle by adding proper pseudorandom phase in each object plane, which can avoid losing spectrum information and be able to reduce the speckle noise of reconstructed image. These kinoforms are written to a 3D electro-holographic display system based on LC-R2500 spatial light modulator (SLM) by a proper loading sequence. A 650 nm diode laser with power of 150 mW is used in the system. A transparent screen is taken as a display media, which could show three-dimensional images reconstructed from holograms loaded on LC-R2500. A pair of Fresnel lenses is used to improve the viewing effect and three-dimensional images floating in space can be viewed by multiple observers.
Numerical modelling of sliding wear caused by pin-on-disk method over copper coated ABS plastic substrate

The coating of metal increases the face value of the plastic and inhibits other properties like conductivity, hardness and lustre. Thus the combination of plastic and metal coating results in a material that is light in weight because of the presence of plastic as the base material and; electrical and thermal conductive because of the presence of metal on the surface. The requirement of such materials is growing day by day. Copper coated plastic has various applications such as in fabrication of printed circuit boards (PCB's) and various automobile parts and in electromagnetic interference shielding. It is important to analyse the tribological aspect of the same in order to broaden its range of application. The present work contains 3D modelling of thermally sprayed copper on ABS plastic and simulation of sliding wear test by pin-on-disc method. The Johnson cook flow stress model is selected for the coating material. Archard's wear model has provided the best results for calculating the wear rate. The results obtained are in good agreement with the experimental values.
On the Numerical Solution of Fourth-Order Linear Two-Point Boundary Value Problems

This paper introduces a fast and numerically stable algorithm for the solution of fourth-order linear boundary value problems on an interval. This type of equation arises in a variety of settings in physics and signal processing. However, current methods of solution involve discretizing the differential equation directly by finite elements or finite differences, and consequently suffer from the poor conditioning introduced by such schemes. Our new method instead reformulates the equation as a collection of second-kind integral equations defined on local subdomains. Each such equation can be stably discretized. The boundary values of these local solutions are matched by solving a banded linear system. The method of iterative refinement is then used to increase the accuracy of the scheme. Iterative refinement requires applying the differential operator to a function on the entire domain, for which we provide an algorithm with linear cost. We illustrate the performance of our method on several numerical examples.
BCL2 and CASP8 regulation by NF‐κB differentially affect mitochondrial function and cell fate in antiestrogen‐sensitive and ‐resistant breast cancer cells

Resistance to endocrine therapies remains a major problem in the management of estrogen receptor‐a (ER)‐positive breast cancer. We show that inhibition of NF‐κB (p65/RELA), either by overexpression of a mutant IκB (IκBSR) or a small‐molecule inhibitor of NF‐κB (parthenolide; IC50=500 nM in tamoxifen‐resistant cells), synergistically restores sensitivity to 4‐hydroxytamoxifen (4HT) in resistant MCF7/RR and MCF7/LCC9 cells and further sensitizes MCF‐7 and MCF7/LCC1 control cells to 4HT. These effects are independent of changes in either cell cycle distribution or in the level of autophagy measured by inhibition of p62/SQSTM1 expression and cleavage of LC3. NF‐κB inhibition restores the ability of 4HT to decrease BCL2 expression, increase mitochondrial membrane permeability, and induce a caspase‐dependent apoptotic cell death in resistant cells. Each of these effects is reversed by a caspase 8 (CASP8)‐specific inhibitor that blocks enzyme‐substrate binding. Thus, increased activation of NF‐κB can alter sensitivity to tamoxifen by modulating CASP8 activity, with consequent effects on BCL2 expression, mitochondrial function, and apoptosis. These data provide significant new insights into how molecular signaling affects antiestrogen responsiveness and strongly suggest that a combination of parthenolide and tamoxifen may offer a novel therapeutic approach to the management of some ER‐positive breast cancers. —Nehra, R. , Riggins, R. B. , Shajahan, A. N. , Zwart, A. , Crawford, A. C. , Clarke, R. BCL2 and CASP8 regulation by NF‐κB differentially affect mitochondrial function and cell fate in antiestrogen‐sensitive and ‐resistant breast cancer cells. FASEB J. 24, 2040–2055 (2010). www.fasebj. org
Social Flocks: Simulating Crowds to Discover the Connection Between Spatial-Temporal Movements of People and Social Structure

Scientific studies from anthropologists, biologists, and sociologists hypothesized people who live in the geo neighborhood have more chances to contact with each other and construct the social relationships. This paper exploits a simulation-based approach to verify such hypothesis through unveiling the connection between the spatial-temporal movements of people and their social relationships. Based on the crowd simulation technique, we design an agent-based framework, social flocks, to model the geo spatial correlation of social elements. We simulate the movements of people to tackle two tasks, social network generation and network community detection. By mapping nodes in the network into agents in the simulation, we examine whether the social networks generated by our model can satisfy the network properties, such as high clustering coefficient, low average path length, and power-law degree distribution. Besides, given a social network, we simulate the social moving behaviors of agents/nodes to study the formation of communities. Experiments conducted for such two tasks verify the proposed hypotheses. Social flocks can also serve as a visualization platform for experts to explore the effects over the spatial, temporal, and social contexts. Through demonstrating how the simulation models are exploited to address social network problems, this paper encourages more studies on this direction.
Systems analysis in hypertension: complementary role of physiologists and geneticists.

discussed the possibilities of mutual cooperation between physiologists and geneticists in the research of causes and mechanisms of genetic hypertension. Two years have elapsed and the genes important for the development of essential hypertension or genetic hypertension of the rat still remain to be identified. In the present article " The phenotypic patterns of essential hypertension are the key to identifying high blood pressure genes " Paul Korner (2010) has summarized his ideas why defining the phenotype needs to be done adequately. The paper is based on his recent book (Korner 2007) about pathophysiological mechanisms important in essential hypertension and some types of genetic hypertension in rats. In this book he has compared the operation of the circulatory control system in the above disorders and under normal condition. Several major differences in their operation have been identified that are critical in the rise in blood pressure. Those initiating hypertension can be related directly to the major environmental factors important in essential hypertension, while the factors responsible for its progression depend on local factors and neuroendocrine changes acting on the vasculature and heart. His thesis is that these physiological differences characterize the important differences in the phenotype. He suggests that now the task of the geneticists is to identify the genes responsible for the differences in the systems operation, using approaches similar to those used in the study of ontogenetic development. It means to analyze the genome through the phenotype which is just the opposite to current approaches. Paul Korner´s article explains why such an approach could be more advantageous than attempting to derive the phenotype from the genetic data – there are too many ambiguities in the present state of our knowledge. With overlapping counterregulation of numerous mechanisms there might be certain problems in the evaluation of true effects of various " BP genes ". This is true not only for the dissection of known QTLs towards distinct genes but also for combining the physiological effects of disclosed SNPs. These problems also might cause the current effort of Allen W. Cowley and Howard J. Jacob who combined their knowledge in physiology and genetics to perform detailed genotyping and phenotyping of their hypertensive rat models (for review see Cowley 2006) using about 250 phenotypes in each rat studied (Moreno et al. 2003). A considerable part of Korner´s article is devoted to the impact of the mechanisms that increase sympathetic neural activity …