Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extensional Rheology and Processing of Polymeric Materials

Abstract Many processing operations of polymeric materials are dominated by extensional flow. In this paper the question is addressed in which way rheological data obtained from elongational laboratory experiments can be used to describe the material behavior in various processes. Particularly discussed is the uniformity of geometrical features of items with respect to the strain hardening of the polymeric materials, because uniformity is important for many end-use properties. Convincing correlations with extensional rheology could not be established for thermoforming experiments on polypropylene. However, for blown and drawn films it was found that the uniformity of thickness improved, if strain hardening was introduced. The bubble stability could be related to the melt strength of the sample. Furthermore, the influences of elasticity and strain hardening on the neck-in during drawing of films were elucidated. Moreover, it was shown in which way extensional rheology can be used to assess foaming.
Joint sequence complexity analysis: Application to social networks information flow

In this paper we study joint sequence complexity and its applications for finding similarities between sequences up to the discrimination of sources. The mathematical concept of the complexity of a sequence is defined as the number of distinct subsequences of it. Sequences containing many common parts have a higher joint complexity. The analysis of a sequence in subcomponents is done by suffix trees, which is a simple, fast, and low complexity method to store and recall them from the memory, especially for short sequences. Joint complexity is used for evaluating the similarity between sequences generated by different Markov sources. Markov models well describe the generation of natural text, and their performance can be predicted via linear algebra, combinatorics, and asymptotic analysis. We exploit datasets from different natural languages, for both short and long sequences, with very promising results. The goal is to perform automated online sequence analysis on information streams, e.g., on social networks such as Twitter. ® 2014 Alcatel-Lucent.
Identifying Best Interventions through Online Importance Sampling

Motivated by applications in computational advertising and systems biology, we consider the problem of identifying the best out of several possible soft interventions at a source node V in an acyclic causal directed graph, to maximize the expected value of a target node Y (located downstream of V). Our setting imposes a fixed total budget for sampling under various interventions, along with cost constraints on different types of interventions. We pose this as a best arm identification bandit problem with K arms where each arm is a soft intervention at V, and leverage the information leakage among the arms to provide the first gap dependent error and simple regret bounds for this problem. Our results are a significant improvement over the traditional best arm identification results. We empirically show that our algorithms outperform the state of the art in the Flow Cytometry data-set, and also apply our algorithm for model interpretation of the Inception-v3 deep net that classifies images.
Embryonic day 9 yolk sac and intra-embryonic hemogenic endothelium independently generate a B-1 and marginal zone progenitor lacking B-2 potential

The majority of B lymphocytes in the adult mouse are generated in the bone marrow from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that first appear in the aorta-gonado-mesonephros region of the fetus on embryonic day (E) 10.5–11. Comparatively less is known about B-cell development during embryogenesis. For example, which specific embryonic tissues participate in B lymphopoiesis and whether hematopoietic differentiation is skewed toward specific B-cell subsets in the embryo are unanswered questions, because the systemic circulation is initiated early during embryogenesis, resulting in an admixture of cells potentially originating from multiple sites. We demonstrate, using Ncx1−/− mice that lack systemic blood circulation, that the E9 yolk sac (YS) and the intra-embryonic para-aortic splanchnopleura (P-Sp) tissues independently give rise to AA4.1+CD19+B220lo-neg B progenitor cells that preferentially differentiate into innate type B-1 and marginal zone (MZ) B cells but not into B-2 cells upon transplantation. We have further demonstrated that these B-1 progenitor cells arise directly from YS and P-Sp hemogenic endothelium. These results document the initial wave of innate B lymphopoietic progenitor cells available for seeding the fetal liver at E11. The results of these studies expand our knowledge of hemogenic endothelial sites specifying distinct B-1 and MZ cell fates apart from B-2 cells and independent of an HSC origin during development.
Protein kinase D2 is a crucial regulator of tumour cell–endothelial cell communication in gastrointestinal tumours

Background Tumour angiogenesis is crucially dependent on the communication between the tumour and the associated endothelium. Protein kinase D (PKD) isoenzymes mediate vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) induced endothelial cell proliferation and migration and are also highly expressed in various tumours. Aim To examine the role of PKDs for tumour proliferation and angiogenesis selectively in pancreatic and gastric tumours and in tumour-associated endothelium in vitro and in vivo. Methods PKD2 expression in human tumours was determined by immunohistochemistry. The effect of PKD2 depletion in endothelial cells by siRNAs was examined in sprouting assays, the chorioallantois model (CAM) and tumour xenografts. In murine endothelium in vivo PKD2 was knocked-down by splice switching oligonucleotides. Human PKD2 was depleted in xenografts by siRNAs and PKD2-miRs. PKD2 activation by hypoxia and its role for hypoxia-induced NR4/TR3- and VEGF-A promoter activity, expression and secretion was investigated in cell lines. Results PKD2 is expressed in gastrointestinal tumours and in the tumour-associated endothelium. Tumour growth and angiogenesis in the CAM and in tumour xenografts require PKD expression in endothelial cells. Conversely, hypoxia activates PKD2 in pancreatic cancer cells and PKD2 was identified as the major mediator of hypoxia-stimulated VEGF-A promoter activity, expression and secretion in tumour cells. PKD2 depletion in pancreatic tumours inhibited tumour-driven blood vessel formation and tumour growth in the CAM and in orthotopic pancreatic cancer xenografts. Conclusion PKD2 regulates hypoxia-induced VEGF-A expression/secretion by tumour cells and VEGF-A stimulated blood vessel formation. PKD2 is a novel, essential mediator of tumour cell–endothelial cell communication and a promising therapeutic target to inhibit angiogenesis in gastrointestinal cancers.
Immunohistochemistry-based comparative study in detection of Hirschsprung's disease in infants in a Tertiary Care Center

Background: Hirschsprung's disease (HD) is the major cause of pediatric intestinal obstruction with a complex pattern of inheritance. The absence of ganglion cells along with an analysis of hypertrophy and hyperplasia of nerves in the nerve plexus of submucosa and muscularis mucosae is regarded as a potential hallmark for its diagnosis. Aims and Objectives: This study was undertaken to ascertain the (1) clinical profile, (2) mode of presentation, and (3) to compare the role of calretinin immunostaining with acetylcholinesterase in the diagnosis of HD. Materials and Methods: This prospective and observational study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, IPGME & R from June 2014 to May 2015. One hundred and four patients clinically and radiologically diagnosed with HD underwent surgery were included in the study. The data of every patient including age, sex, and presenting symptoms were recorded. Eventually, histopathological, calretinin, and acetylcholinesterase immunohistochemical examination were done. Results: Total numbers of cases studied were 104, which aged between 0 days and 365 days. Male preponderance (76.92%) was noted. The overall sensitivity, specificity, positive, and negative predictive value of acetylcholinesterase were 100%, 86.44%, 84.91%, and 100%, respectively. The concordance of detection of ganglion cells and nerve fibers, and thereby diagnosis of Hirschsprung's and non-HD using calretinin and the gold standard was statistically in strong agreement ((κ = 0.749, 95% confidence interval: 0.635–0.863). Conclusions: Calretinin stands out as the single and indispensable tool that differentiates HD from other mimickers.
Model-based Design of Self-adapting Networked Signal Processing Systems

The paper describes a model based approach for architecture design of runtime reconfigurable, large-scale, networked signal processing applications. A graph based modeling formalism is introduced to describe all relevant aspects of the design (functional, concurrency, hardware, communication, energy, etc.). The formalism can be used to evaluate and suggest architectural patterns for signal processing type of applications. Moreover, an architecture design evaluation tool according to the modeling formalism is described, which can place the system design under various execution scenarios (e.g. node mobility, node failure, communication link deterioration, etc.) and determine emerging system properties (such as expected lifetime, availability of services, throughput, response times, etc.). Distinguishing feature of the tool is that it allows for modeling runtime reconfiguration solutions (e.g. distributed optimization, constraint solvers) and making changes in the underlying system architecture and thus evaluate the effects of the reconfiguration. The evaluation tool can be embedded into a design optimizer, which allows an optimal trade-off between design-time and runtime configuration to be determined. The effectiveness of the approach and the tool is demonstrated via two application cases (structural integrity monitoring, greenhouse temperature distribution estimation).
Overlay and stitching metrology for massively parallel electron-beam lithography (Conference Presentation)

One of the metrology challenges for massively parallel electron beams is to verify that all the beams that are used perform within specification. The Mapper FLX-1200 platform exposes fields horizontally segmented in 2.2 μm-wide stripes. This yields two parameters of interest: overlay is the registration error with respect to a previous layer, and stitching is the registration error between the stripes. This paper presents five novel overlay targets and one novel stitching target tailored for Mapper’s needs and measured on KLA-Tencor Archer 600 image based overlay (IBO) platform. The targets have been screened by exposure of a variable shaped electron beam lithography machine (Vistec VSB 3054 DW) on two different stacks: resist-to-resist and resist-to-etched silicon, both as a trilayer stack. These marks attain a total measurement uncertainty (TMU) down to 0.3 nm and move-and-measure (MAM) time down to 0.3 seconds for both stacks. The stitching targets have an effective TMU of 0.4 nm and a MAM time of 0.75 seconds. In a follow up experiment, the two best performing overlay targets have been incorporated in an exposure by a Mapper FLX-1200. With the new stack a TMU of 0.3 nm and MAM time of 0.35 s have been attained. For 107 out of 140 selected stripes the slope was constant within 2.5%, the offset smaller than 0.5 nm and correlation coefficient R2 > 0.98.
High conductivity transparent carbon nanotube films deposited from superacid

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were deposited from a chlorosulfonic superacid solution onto PET substrates by a filtration/transfer method. The sheet resistance and transmission (at 550 nm) of the films were 60 Ω/sq and 90.9% respectively, which corresponds to a DC conductivity of 12 825 S cm − 1 and a DC/optical conductivity ratio of 64.1. This is the highest DC conductivity reported for CNT thin films to date, and attributed to both the high quality of the CNT material and the exfoliation/doping by the superacid. This work demonstrates that CNT transparent films have not reached the conductivity limit; continued improvements will enable these films to be used as the transparent electrode for applications in solid state lighting, LCD displays, touch panels, and photovoltaics.
E-commerce: the emergence of a field and its knowledge network

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) describes the manner in which transactions take place over electronic networks, mostly over the internet. It includes the process of supplying, buying and selling goods, services and information electronically. This paper uses bibliometric epistemology to suggest that a number of publications have played catalytic roles in the formation of a knowledge network that underlies the rapidly developing field of e-commerce. The first four of the six properties of knowledge (Latour, 1987) – the "what", "where", "when", by "whom", "how", and "why" – are presented in the results. The paper presents the most highly cited e-commerce documents (including books and journals), highly cited researchers, their respective fields, topics and the publication media that disseminated their works. The formation stages of e-commerce clearly point to the emergence of an inter-disciplinary and comprehensive field.
miR-125a-5p impairs endothelial cell angiogenesis in aging mice via RTEF-1 downregulation

Increasing evidence suggests that microRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in impaired endothelial cell (EC) angiogenesis during aging. However, their exact roles in the aging process remain unclear. We aimed to determine whether miRNAs cause angiogenesis defects in ECs during aging and to uncover the underlying mechanisms. To study the miRNA‐induced changes in ECs during aging, we performed microarray analyses on arterial ECs collected from young and aging mice. Using qRT–PCR, we showed that microRNA‐125a‐5p (mir‐125a‐5p) expression was approximately 2.9 times higher in old endothelial cells (OECs) compared with samples collected from young animals. Western blot assays showed a lower expression level of an mir‐125a‐5p target known as related transcriptional enhancer factor‐1 (RTEF‐1) in OECs compared with its expression levels in young cells. Overexpression of mir‐125a‐5p in young endothelial cells (YECs) using pre‐mir‐125a‐5p caused the downregulation of RTEF‐1, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and resulted in impaired angiogenesis, as evidenced by spheroid sprouting and tube formation assays in vitro. Conversely, repression of mir‐125a‐5p in OECs using anti‐mir‐125a‐5p increased RTEF‐1, eNOS and VEGF expression and improved EC angiogenesis. Importantly, impaired angiogenesis caused by knock‐down of RTEF‐1 was not efficiently rescued by anti‐mir‐125a‐5p. Dual‐luciferase reporter gene analysis showed that RTEF‐1 is a direct target of mir‐125a‐5p, which regulates angiogenesis by repressing RTEF‐1 expression and modulating eNOS and VEGF expression. These findings indicate that mir‐125a‐5p and RTEF‐1 are potential therapeutic targets for improving EC‐mediated angiogenesis in elderly individuals.
The genetic basis of colorectal cancer in a population-based incident cohort with a high rate of familial disease

Background and aims Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most frequent cancer in developed countries. Newfoundland has the highest incidence of CRC in Canada and the highest rate of familial CRC yet reported in the world. To determine the impact of mutations in known CRC susceptibility genes and the contribution of the known pathways to the development of hereditary CRC, an incident cohort of 750 patients with CRC (708 different families) from the Newfoundland population was studied. Methods Microsatellite instability (MSI) testing was performed on tumours, together with immunohistochemistry analysis for mismatch repair (MMR) genes. Where indicated, DNA sequencing and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplifications of MMR genes and APC was undertaken. DNA from all patients was screened for MUTYH mutations. The presence of the BRAF variant, p.V600E, and of MLH1 promoter methylation was also tested in tumours. Results 4.6% of patients fulfilled the Amsterdam criteria (AC), and an additional 44.6% fulfilled the revised Bethesda criteria. MSI-high (MSI-H) was observed in 10.7% (n=78) of 732 tumours. In 3.6% (n=27) of patients, CRC was attributed to 12 different inherited mutations in six known CRC-related genes associated with chromosomal instability or MSI pathways. Seven patients (0.9%) carried a mutation in APC or biallelic mutations in MUTYH. Of 20 patients (2.7%) with mutations in MMR genes, 14 (70%) had one of two MSH2 founder mutations. 17 of 28 (61%) AC families did not have a genetic cause identified, of which 15 kindreds fulfilled the criteria for familial CRC type X (FCCTX). Conclusions Founder mutations accounted for only 2.1% of cases and this was insufficient to explain the high rate of familial CRC. Many of the families classified as FCCTX may have highly penetrant mutations segregating in a Mendelian-like manner. These families will be important for identifying additional CRC susceptibility loci.
Alexithymia, Emotional Instability, and Vulnerability to Stress Proneness in Patients Seeking Help for Hypersexual Behavior

This article reports the findings of a study investigating alexithymia, emotional instability, and vulnerability to stress proneness among individuals (N = 120) seeking help for hypersexual behavior. At the onset of treatment at an outpatient community clinic, subjects completed the Sexual Compulsivity Scale (SCS), the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and the NEO Personality Inventory Revised (NEO-PI-R). The results of a hierarchical regression analysis revealed the best model in predicting severity of hypersexual behavior included the facets of depression and vulnerability to stress from the NEO and the Difficulty Identifying Feelings (DIF) factor of the TAS-20. Although the NEO domain of neuroticism appeared to capture the majority of variance in hypersexual behavior, the difficulty identifying feelings factor of the TAS-20 did make some modest, but significant, contribution to the severity of hypersexual behavior after controlling for depression and vulnerability to stress. These data provide evidence for the hypothesis that individuals who manifest symptoms of hypersexual behavior are more likely to experience deficits in affect regulation and negative affect (including alexithymia, depression, and vulnerability to stress). Possible reasons for these results are suggested and future recommendations for research are offered.
University of Birmingham Optimization of SLM Process Parameters for Ti6Al4V Medical Implants

Ti6Al4V alloy has received a great deal of attention in medical applications due to its biomechanical compatibility. However, the human bone stiffness is between 10 and 30 GPa while solid Ti6Al4V is significantly stiffer, which would cause stress shielding with the surrounding bone which can lead to implant and/or the surrounding bone’s failure. In this work, the effect of SLM process parameters on the characteristics of Ti6Al4V samples, such as porosity level, surface roughness, elastic modulus and compressive strength (UCS), has been investigated using Response Surface Method (RSM). The examined ranges of process parameters were 35-50 W for laser power, 100-400 mm/s for scan speed and 35-120 µm for hatch spacing. The results showed that the porosity % of a SLM component could be increased by reducing the laser power and/or increasing the scan speed and hatch spacing. It was also shown that there was a reverse relationship between the porosity level and both the modulus of elasticity and UCS of the SLM part. In addition, the increased laser power resulted in a substantial decrease of the surface roughness of SLM parts. The process parameters have been optimized to obtain structures with properties very close to that in human bones. Results from the optimization study revealed that the interaction between laser process parameters (i.e. laser power, laser speed, and the laser spacing) have the most significant influence on the mechanical properties of fabricated samples. The optimized values for the manufacturing of medical implants were 49 W, 400 mm/s and 99  m for the laser power, laser speed and laser spacing, respectively. The corresponding porosity, surface roughness, modulus of elasticity and UCS were 23.62%, 8.68 µm, 30 GPa and 522 MPa, respectively.
Radiation Pressure Instability Driven Variability in the Accreting Black Holes

The time-dependent evolution of the accretion disk around the black hole is computed. The classical description of the α-viscosity is adopted so the evolution is driven by the instability operating in the innermost radiation pressure-dominated part of the accretion disk. We assume that the optically thick disk always extends down to the marginally stable orbit, so it is never evacuated completely. We include the effect of the advection, coronal dissipation, and vertical outflow. We show that the presence of the corona and/or the outflow reduces the amplitude of the outburst. If only about half of the energy is dissipated in the disk (with the other half dissipated in the corona and carried away by the outflow), the outburst amplitude and duration are consistent with observations of the microquasar GRS 1915+105. Viscous evolution explains in a natural way the lack of direct transitions from the state C to the state B in the color-color diagram of this source. Further reduction of the fraction of energy dissipated in the optically thick disk switches off the outbursts, which may explain why they are not seen in all high accretion rate sources being in the very high state.
Effect of Ethanol on the Sodium and Potassium Conductances of the Squid Axon Membrane

The effects of ethanol on squid giant axons were studied by means of the sucrose-gap technique. The membrane action potential height is moderately reduced and the duration sometimes shortened by ethanol in sea water. Voltage clamp experiments showed that ethanol in sea water reduced the maximum membrane conductances for sodium (g'Na) and potassium (g'K). In experiments with multiple application of ethyl alcohol to the same spot of membrane, a reduction of g'Na to 82 per cent and of g'K to 80 per cent of their value in sea water was brought about by 3 per cent ethanol (by volume) while 6 per cent caused a decrease of g'Na to 59 per cent and of g'K to 69 per cent. Ethanol has no significant effect on the steady-state inactivation of g Na (as a function of conditioning membrane potential) or on such kinetic parameters as τh or the time course of turning on gi g Na and g K. It is concluded that ethanol mainly reduces g Na and g K in the Hodgkin-Huxley terminology.
Testing random variables for independence and identity

Given access to independent samples of a distribution A over [n] /spl times/ [m], we show how to test whether the distributions formed by projecting A to each coordinate are independent, i.e., whether A is /spl epsi/-close in the L/sub 1/ norm to the product distribution A/sub 1//spl times/A/sub 2/ for some distributions A/sub 1/ over [n] and A/sub 2/ over [m]. The sample complexity of our test is O/spl tilde/(n/sup 2/3/m/sup 1/3/poly(/spl epsi//sup -1/)), assuming without loss of generality that m/spl les/n. We also give a matching lower bound, up to poly (log n, /spl epsi//sup -1/) factors. Furthermore, given access to samples of a distribution X over [n], we show how to test if X is /spl epsi/-close in L/sub 1/ norm to an explicitly specified distribution Y. Our test uses O/spl tilde/(n/sup 1/2/poly(/spl epsi//sup -1/)) samples, which nearly matches the known tight bounds for the case when Y is uniform.