Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identifying ill tool combinations via Gibbs Sampler for semiconductor manufacturing yield diagnosis

In semiconductor manufacturing, all up-to-date tool commonality analysis (TCA) algorithms for yield diagnosis are based on greedy search strategies, which are naturally poor in identifying combinational factors. When the root cause of product yield loss is tool combination instead of a single tool, the greedy-search-oriented TCA algorithm usually results in both high false and high miss identification rates. As the feature size of semiconductor devices continuously shrinks down, the problem induced by greedy-search-oriented TCA algorithm becomes severer because the total number of tools is getting large and product yield loss is more likely caused by a specific tool combination. To cope with the tool combination problem, a new TCA algorithm based on Gibbs Sampler, a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) stochastic search technique, is proposed in this paper. Simulation and field data validation results show that the proposed TCA algorithm performs well in identifying the ill tool combination.
An improved genetic algorithm for multiple traveling salesman problem

Multiple traveling salesman problem, which uses the shortest total route as an optimization criteria, has huge application in both theoretical research and industry. This paper presents an improved genetic algorithm to provide an alternative and effective solution to the problem. The initial population was generated by greedy strategy, this enabled selected sub-route to be included in the initial population. Convergent speed was increased and at the same time complexity was significantly reduced. The mutation operator combined with 2-opt local search algorithm was used to avoid the limitation of local search ability of genetic algorithm. It also solved the problems of the simple genetic algorithm such as premature phenomena and slow convergence. The simulation results based on our algorithm show that the improved method is effective and feasible.
Daily sodium consumption and CVD mortality in the general population: systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies

Abstract Objective The purpose of the present study was to determine whether elevated dietary Na intake could be associated with CVD mortality. Design We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies representing the general population. The adjusted relative risks and their 95 % confidence intervals were pooled by the inverse variance method using random-effects models. Heterogeneity, publication bias, subgroup and meta-regression analyses were performed. Settings MEDLINE (since 1973), Embase (since 1975), the Cochrane Library (since 1976), ISI Web of Science, Google Scholar (until September 2013) and secondary referencing were searched for inclusion in the study. Subject Eleven prospective studies with 229 785 participants and average follow-up period of 13·37 years (range 5·5–19 years). Results Higher Na intake was significantly associated with higher CVD mortality (relative risk=1·12; 95 % CI 1·06, 1·19). In the sensitivity analysis, the exclusion of studies with important relative weights did not significantly affect the results (relative risk=1·08; 95 % CI 1·01, 1·15). The meta-regression analysis showed that for every increase of 10 mmol/d in Na intake, CVD mortality increased significantly by 1 % (P=0·016). Age, hypertensive status and length of follow-up were also associated with increased CVD mortality. Conclusions Higher Na intake was associated with higher CVD mortality in the general population; this result suggests a reduction in Na intake to prevent CVD mortality from any cause.
Excess Aldosterone under Normal Salt Diet Induces Cardiac Hypertrophy and Infiltration via Oxidative Stress

Aldosterone is known to play a role in the pathophysiology of some cardiovascular diseases. However, previous studies on aldosterone infusion have been mostly performed in animals receiving sodium loading and uninephrectomy, and thus the cardiac action of aldosterone alone remains to be fully clarified. The present study was undertaken to investigate the direct cardiac action of aldosterone infusion alone in rats not subjected to salt loading and uninephrectomy. Aldosterone (0.75 μg/h) was subcutaneously infused into rats via an osmotic minipump for 14 days. Aldosterone infusion, under a normal salt diet, induced only a slight increase in the blood pressure of normal rats throughout the infusion. However, aldosterone significantly induced cardiac hypertrophy, as shown by echocardiography and measurement of cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area. Furthermore, aldosterone caused not only cardiac interstitial macrophage infiltration but also cardiac focal inflammatory lesions, which were associated with an increase in cardiac monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and osteopontin mRNA. The slight elevation of blood pressure by aldosterone infusion was completely prevented by tempol, the superoxide dismutase mimetic. However, tempol failed to suppress cardiac hypertrophy, the formation of inflammatory lesions, and upregulation of cardiac MCP-1 and osteopontin by aldosterone, while N-acetylcysteine could inhibit all of them. Our data provide evidence that aldosterone alone can induce cardiac hypertrophy and severe inflammatory response in the heart, independently of blood pressure, even in the absence of salt loading or nephrectomy. Aldosterone seems to induce cardiac inflammation and gene expression via oxidative stress that is inhibited by N-acetylcysteine but not by tempol.
Laser processing of glass fiber reinforced composite material: a review

Abstract Composite materials are nowadays having gained a lot of interest. Through numerous studies, the damage to glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites increased, while traditional machining processes, like cutting and drilling. This is due to the fact that difference in the material properties of fibre and matrix. However, unconventional methods showed minimal damage to the surface with precision. The damage occurred in GFRP composite comprised of delamination, cracking of the material at the edge as well as tool wear so laser machining is generally preferred as there is no contact between tool and workpiece, any tool wear and vibrations. The objective of this study to give an overview of the cutting of GFRP composite and the quality of cut surface by analysing the heat-affected zone, taper angle and kerf width. The aim of this study to reveal the damages occurred due to operational parameters and found that the surface quality improved by optimising laser power, scan speed and standoff distance.
Attitudes toward and Use of Subsequent Nursing Home Services among a National Sample of Older Adults

This study was designed to examine the relationship between attitudes toward nursing homes and subsequent nursing home utilization, and assess the impact of prior nursing home utilization on subsequent attitudes among a national sample of older Americans. Multivariate estimation procedures for complex survey designs were performed on the National Long-Term Care Survey data set. Although prior nursing home use did not directly affect subsequent attitudes toward nursing homes, having favorable attitudes about nursing homes increased the odds of using subsequent nursing home services by 1.5 and increased the total nursing home length of stay by 17%. Implications of this research for public policy and long-term care treatment planning are discussed.
p27KIP1 blocks cyclin E-dependent transactivation of cyclin A gene expression

Cyclin E is necessary and rate limiting for the passage of mammalian cells through the G1 phase of the cell cycle. Control of cell cycle progression by cyclin E involves cdk2 kinase, which requires cyclin E for catalytic activity. Expression of cyclin E/cdk2 leads to an activation of cyclin A gene expression, as monitored by reporter gene constructs derived from the human cyclin A promoter. Promoter activation by cyclin E/cdk2 requires an E2F binding site in the cyclin A promoter. We show here that cyclin E/cdk2 kinase can directly bind to E2F/p107 complexes formed on the cyclin A promoter-derived E2F binding site, and this association is controlled by p27KIP1, most likely through direct protein-protein interaction. These observation suggest that cyclin E/cdk2 associates with E2F/p107 complexes in late G1 phase, once p27KIP1 has decreased below a critical threshold level. Since a kinase-negative mutant of cdk2 prevents promoter activation, it appears that transcriptional activation of the cyclin A gene requires an active cdk2 kinase tethered to its promoter region.
Nanomechanical studies of metallic glasses at ambient and elevated temperatures

Bulk metallic glasses, though attractive for use in structural applications for their high strength and elastic limit, display several unacceptable features upon deformation, including quasi-brittle failure along shear bands, extremely limited tensile ductility, and propensity for fatigue under cyclic loading. Though researchers have studied metallic glasses for the last fifty years, several fundamental aspects of the mechanical deformation process in these materials have not been conclusively established. In this thesis, new instrumentation and techniques were developed to study the deformation mechanism of metallic glasses, enabling a focused, high-resolution method for probing nanomechanical behavior. A nanoindenter capable of sub-nanometer and sub-microNewton resolution was outfitted with a custom heating stage and installed in a controlled atmosphere chamber to allow for high fidelity testing in a non-oxidizing environment across a range of deformation regimes. Using this system, the process of shear band initiation near a stress concentration was investigated using a low load indentation technique, revealing that high stresses at a point directly beneath the contact are not sufficient to cause shear band release to the free surface, but instead the potential for material flow along a slip line to relieve stress must be considered. Additionally, the distribution of strengths associated with the yield event was identified and its origins were determined to be mainly structural by using a variety of specially designed loading functions to examine rate, stress, and dynamic loading dependencies. Elevated temperature testing in the custom indentation system allowed in situ observation of the transition from discrete accommodation of strain in shear bands to homogeneous flow as well as characterization of the main features of viscous flow above the glass transition temperature. With the development of these new high-resolution testing methods, new avenues of experimental investigation have been opened, allowing insight into the fundamentals of plastic flow in metallic glasses across a spectrum of conditions. Thesis Supervisor: Christopher A. Schuh Title: Danae and Vasilios Salapatas Associate Professor of Materials Science & Engineering
Change in carrier type in high-k gate carbon nanotube field-effect transistors by interface fixed charges

We study the phenomenon of change in carrier type in carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNFETs) caused by the atomic layer deposition (ALD) of a HfO2 gate insulator. When a HfO2 layer is deposited on a CNFET, the type of carrier changes from p-type to n-type. The so-obtained n-type device has good performance and stability in air. The conductivity of such a device with a channel length of 0.7 µm is 11% of the quantum conductance 4e2/h. The contact resistance for electron current is estimated to be 14 kΩ. The n-type conduction of this CNFET is maintained for more than 100 days. The change in carrier type is attributed to positive fixed charges introduced at the interface between the HfO2 and SiO2 layers. We also propose a novel technique to control the type of conduction by utilizing interface fixed charges; this technique is compatible with Si CMOS process technology.
Chloroform alters interleaflet coupling in lipid bilayers: an entropic mechanism

The interaction of the two leaflets of the plasmatic cell membrane is conjectured to play an important role in many cell processes. Experimental and computational studies have investigated the mechanisms that modulate the interaction between the two membrane leaflets. Here, by means of coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we show that the addition of a small and polar compound such as chloroform alters interleaflet coupling by promoting domain registration. This is interpreted in terms of an entropic gain that would favour frequent chloroform commuting between the two leaflets. The implication of this effect is discussed in relation to the general anaesthetic action.
Low-potassium and glucose-free dialysis maintains urea but enhances potassium removal.

BACKGROUND The influence of potassium (K) removal on dialysis efficiency as measured by urea elimination is not clear. In this prospective, randomized, cross-over study we investigated the magnitude of K removal and its effect on urea (u) elimination during high-flux haemodialysis (HD). METHODS Twelve stable, non-diabetic HD patients were investigated during three one-week standardized HD periods (1.8 m(2) high-flux polysulphone dialyser, treatment time 240 min, Qb = 300 ml/min, Qd = 500 ml/min, dialysate without glucose, bicarbonate 40 mmol/l), using dialysates containing 0 (0K), 1 (1K), and 2 (2K) mmol/l of K. Mass removal of K (M(K)) and u (M(U)) were measured during the mid-week treatment by partial dialysate collection. Urea reduction rate (URR) and Kt/V were determined. RESULTS 0K, 1K and 2K treatments were perfectly comparable. Plasma K (PK) continuously declined reaching stable concentrations after 180 min. While 0K dialysate removed 117.1 mmol, 80.2 and 63.3 mmol (P < 0.001) were removed by 1K and 2K baths respectively. M(U) was not influenced by M(K) (r = 0.22) and amounted to 491.1 (0K), 508.6 (1K), and 506.2 (2K) mmol (NS) respectively. Accordingly, urea clearance, URR and Kt/V were constant during 0K, 1K and 2K treatments. CONCLUSIONS Potassium-free dialysate significantly enhances potassium elimination. Potassium removal has no influence on urea elimination. High potassium removal, when needed, does not impair dialysis efficiency as measured by urea kinetics in high-flux, glucose-free, 40 mmol/l bicarbonate HD.
Real-time Simulation of Herds Moving Over Terrain

We present a method for animating herds of animals to follow terrain surfaces in real time. This method involves making modifications to Reynold’s boids algorithm. The modifications use local properties of the terrain and thus have low complexity. They produce naturally behaving herds that follow the terrain, swerving around hills and attempting to reduce energy expenditure. The terrain-following rule has a parameter that can be adjusted to produce different behaviors. Empirical analysis shows how this parameter affects energy expenditure of the animals while traveling over the terrain. See demo: http://consystlab.unl. edu/our_work/herds.html
The adhesion study of backside dielectric film within 3D process integration

Backside dielectric was deposited on bonded wafer after TSV reveal etch and wet clean in 3D integration. Backside Si interface roughness after Si backgrinding is one of consideration for the adhesion between the first backside dielectric and Si substrate. Different backgrinding conditions were evaluated in this paper. Low temperature dielectric films (SiO2 and SiN) were deposited because of the bonded wafer thermal limitation. Different stacked films deposited at different temperature were evaluated through the scratch test and bump shear test.
Silencing of Ether à Go-Go 1 by shRNA Inhibits Osteosarcoma Growth and Cell Cycle Progression

Recently, a member of the voltage-dependent potassium channel (Kv) family, the Ether à go-go 1 (Eag1) channel was found to be necessary for cell proliferation, cycle progression and tumorigenesis. However, the therapeutic potential of the Eag1 channel in osteosarcoma remains elusive. In the present study, a recombinant adenovirus harboring shRNA against Eag1 was constructed to silence Eag1 expression in human osteosarcoma MG-63 cells. We observed that Eag1-shRNA inhibited the proliferation and colony formation of MG-63 cells due to the induction of G1 phase arrest. Moreover, in vivo experiments showed that Eag1-shRNA inhibited osteosarcoma growth in a xenograft nude mice model. In addition, selective inhibition of Eag1 significantly decreased the expression levels of cyclin D1 and E. Taken together, our data suggest that the Eag1 channel plays a crucial role in regulating the proliferation and cell cycle of osteosarcoma cells, and represents a new and effective therapeutic target for osteosarcoma.
Gender differences in sharing injecting equipment by drug users in England

The study investigates whether the higher rates of sharing needles and syringes reported by female injecting drug users (IDUs) also occur in sharing other types of injecting equipment. Structured interviews were carried out with 181 IDUs in two cities (100 in Bournemouth, 81 in Bath), with almost equal numbers of males and females in each sample, recruited through needle exchanges and 'snowballing'. Almost all (92%) had shared some equipment in the previous six months: 40% had shared syringes in the month before interview. Several methods of assessing sharing found that women received previously used injecting equipment significantly more often than men. Significantly more males had passed on equipment other than syringes in the previous six months. Fine-grained analyses of 547 injecting episodes found that women received needles and syringes, and syringes significantly more often than did men. The pattern of gender differences reported suggests that women are at higher risk of blood borne viral infections because they receive more types of used equipment and do so more frequently. These results have implications for practice and research.
Radiation Dose of the P-Glycoprotein Tracer 11C-Laniquidar

Resistance to current drug therapy is an important issue in the treatment of epilepsy. Inadequate access of central nervous system drugs to their targets in the brain may be caused by overexpression or overactivity of multidrug transporters, such as P-glycoprotein (P-gp), at the blood–brain barrier. Laniquidar, an inhibitor of P-gp, has been labeled with 11C for use in PET studies of P-gp expression in humans. Given potential interspecies differences in biodistribution, the purpose of this study was to ensure safe use of 11C-laniquidar by determining the dosimetry of 11C-laniquidar using whole-body PET studies. Methods: Six healthy volunteers were subjected to a series of 10 whole-body PET scans within approximately 70 min. Five blood samples were taken during the series. Results: High uptake of 11C-laniquidar was seen in liver, spleen, kidneys, and lung, whereas brain uptake was low. The effective dose for 11C-laniquidar was 4.76 ± 0.13 and 3.69 ± 0.01 μSv·MBq−1 for women and men, respectively. Conclusion: Biodistribution and measured effective dose indicate that 11C-laniquidar is a safe tracer for PET imaging, with a total dose of about 2 mSv for a brain PET/CT protocol.
Exemplar-based syntax: How to get productivity from examples

Abstract Exemplar-based models of language propose that human language production and understanding operate with a store of concrete linguistic experiences rather than with abstract linguistic rules. While exemplar-based models are well acknowledged in areas like phonology and morphology, common wisdom has it that they are intrinsically flawed for syntax where infinite generative capacity is needed. This article shows that this common wisdom is wrong. It starts out by reviewing an exemplar-based syntactic model, known as Data-Oriented Parsing, or DOP, which operates on a corpus of phrase-structure trees. While this model is productive, it is inadequate from the point of grammatical productivity. We therefore extend it to the more sophisticated linguistic representations proposed by Lexical-Functional Grammar theory, resulting in the model known as LFG-DOP, which does allow for meta-linguistic judgments of acceptability. We show how DOP deals with first language acquisition, suggesting a unified model for language learning and language use, and go into a number of syntactic phenomena that can be explained by DOP but that challenge rule-based models. We argue that if there is anything innate in language cognition it is not Universal Grammar but “Universal Representation”.
Using Hankel matrices for dynamics-based facial emotion recognition and pain detection

This paper proposes a new approach to model the temporal dynamics of a sequence of facial expressions. To this purpose, a sequence of Face Image Descriptors (FID) is regarded as the output of a Linear Time Invariant (LTI) system. The temporal dynamics of such sequence of descriptors are represented by means of a Hankel matrix. The paper presents different strategies to compute dynamics-based representation of a sequence of FID, and reports classification accuracy values of the proposed representations within different standard classification frameworks. The representations have been validated in two very challenging application domains: emotion recognition and pain detection. Experiments on two publicly available benchmarks and comparison with state-of-the-art approaches demonstrate that the dynamics-based FID representation attains competitive performance when off-the-shelf classification tools are adopted.
Adenosine receptor antagonists: translating medicinal chemistry and pharmacology into clinical utility.

3.1. 3. Styrylxanthines 248 3.1. 4. 9H-Purine derivatives 248 3.2. Pharmacology 248 3.3. Clinical Development and Patents 249 4. A2B Adenosine Receptor Antagonists 250 4.1. Chemistry 250 4.1. 1. Xanthines 250 4.1. 2. Pyrrolopyrimidines 251 4.2. Pharmacology 252 4.3. Clinical Development and Patents 253 5. A3 Adenosine Receptor Antagonists 253 5.1. Chemistry 254 5.1. 1. Xanthines 254 5.1. 2. 1,4-Dihydropyridine and Pyridines 255 5.1. 3. Pyrazolo-triazolo-pyrimidines 255 5.1. 4. Isoquinoline and Quinazoline Urea Analogues as Antagonists for the Human Adenosine A3 Receptor 256
The Membrane Associated RING-CH Proteins: A Family of E3 Ligases with Diverse Roles through the Cell

Since the discovery that conjugation of ubiquitin to proteins can drive proteolytic degradation, ubiquitination has been shown to perform a diverse range of functions in the cell. It plays an important role in endocytosis, signal transduction, trafficking of vesicles inside the cell, and even DNA repair. The process of ubiquitination-mediated control has turned out to be remarkably complex, involving a diverse array of proteins and many levels of control. This review focuses on a family of structurally related E3 ligases termed the membrane-associated RING-CH (MARCH) ubiquitin ligases, which were originally discovered as structural homologs to the virals E3s, K3, and K5 from Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). These proteins contain a catalytic RING-CH finger and are typically membrane-bound, with some having up to 14 putative transmembrane domains. Despite several lines of evidence showing that the MARCH proteins play a complex and essential role in several cellular processes, this family remains understudied.
An Effective Approach of Negative Selection Algorithm with Canny Algorithm for Detection of Edges

Edge detection plays inevitable role in vision processing. The main issues are to discover edges in an image, so the initial step is to procedure of view reproduction. It has been shown in many papers that the most of the existing techniques has neglected the use of colours while detecting the edges but in many applications a region can be categorized based upon the colour. This paper has shown the result of different colour based edge detectors i.e. hue, PCA and integrated Hue and PCA based methods. I have used NSA technique with canny edge detection which gives far better results than the existing technique. General Terms Edge detection, PCA, Hue, Morphological operations, NSA, Canny edge detection.