Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Containerless processing in the study of metallic melts and their solidification

AbstractThe study of metallic melts, their physical properties, and their solidification behaviour is of relevance to understanding of fundamental principles and to metallurgical applications. Many, if not most, of these properties are extremely sensitive to contamination of the melt by impurities. Consequently, containerless processing techniques have become an important tool in the investigation of these systems. In this review, first the most frequently used containerless techniques are discussed, such as free fall facilities (drop tubes, drop towers) and levitation facilities (acoustic, electrostatic, electromagnetic) including potential applications in the microgravity environment of space. These are correlated with the research areas which make use of containerless processing. Specifically, the measurement of thermophysical properties, nucleation experiments, crystal growth, and the solidification of nonequilibrium states are discussed. In all these cases, the major emphasis is on the study of the u.
Model Driven Advanced Hybrid Cloud Services for Big Data: Paradigm and Practice

Advanced hybrid cloud services aim to serve big data applications by bridging multi-provider high performance cloud resources including direct connects, hypervisor bypassing VM interfaces, on premise clusters, parallel storage and high speed inter-cloud networks. We present a new “full-stack model driven orchestration” paradigm to integrate these diverse resources through semantic modeling and provide complex highend services through dynamic orchestrated workflows. We also present architectural design of a real-world orchestration system, VersaStack, that implements the paradigm as well as a case study for providing full-scale advanced hybrid cloud services in practice.
Effects of different indentation methods on fatigue life extension of cracked specimens

In this paper, three different indentation methods have been investigated for crack arresting and fatigue life enhancement of cracked components. The influence of residual stresses induced by indentation on fatigue crack growth (FCG) rate was explored by experiments and numerical simulations. Fatigue tests were conducted on a group of specimens which were indented on the crack tip by various indentation load magnitudes. For another group of specimens, the double indentation and triple indentation methods were applied on the cracked specimens with the aim of obtaining proper residual stress fields that contribute to higher crack growth retardations. Both the numerical and experimental results revealed that the higher indentation loads led to larger domain of compressive residual stress around the crack tip and consequently to higher fatigue life extension. In addition, the triple indentation method resulted in more FCG retardation compared to single and double indentation methods. Furthermore, for the specimens repaired by double and triple indentation methods, indenting ahead of the crack tip led to retardation in more crack growth compared to the other horizontal positions of indentation.
Does responsiveness to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi depend on plant invasive status?

Abstract Differences in the direction and degree to which invasive alien and native plants are influenced by mycorrhizal associations could indicate a general mechanism of plant invasion, but whether or not such differences exist is unclear. Here, we tested whether mycorrhizal responsiveness varies by plant invasive status while controlling for phylogenetic relatedness among plants with two large grassland datasets. Mycorrhizal responsiveness was measured for 68 taxa from the Northern Plains, and data for 95 taxa from the Central Plains were included. Nineteen percent of taxa from the Northern Plains had greater total biomass with mycorrhizas while 61% of taxa from the Central Plains responded positively. For the Northern Plains taxa, measurable effects often depended on the response variable (i.e., total biomass, shoot biomass, and root mass ratio) suggesting varied resource allocation strategies when roots are colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. In both datasets, invasive status was nonrandomly distributed on the phylogeny. Invasive taxa were mainly from two clades, that is, Poaceae and Asteraceae families. In contrast, mycorrhizal responsiveness was randomly distributed over the phylogeny for taxa from the Northern Plains, but nonrandomly distributed for taxa from the Central Plains. After controlling for phylogenetic similarity, we found no evidence that invasive taxa responded differently to mycorrhizas than other taxa. Although it is possible that mycorrhizal responsiveness contributes to invasiveness in particular species, we find no evidence that invasiveness in general is associated with the degree of mycorrhizal responsiveness. However, mycorrhizal responsiveness among species grown under common conditions was highly variable, and more work is needed to determine the causes of this variation.
A wide tuning range Active-RC filter for multi-mode applications

This paper presents a 6th-order Active-RC filter for multi-mode applications. The filter exploits Butterworth structure with digitally-controlled resistor and capacitor arrays, which is flexible for bandwidth tuning. The chip is fabricated in SMIC 0. 13µm CMOS process, occupies an area of 0.83mm2. The measurement results indicate the filter provides a wide tuning range from 400kHz to 20MHz and achieves an IIP3 of +20dBm with 1.2V power supply and the power consumption is 8.16mW.
Modeling the structure of clusters of C 60 molecules

We locate putative global minima for (C60)N clusters modelled by the potential of Pacheco and Prates-Ramalho up to N=105. These minima are based on icosahedral packing up to N=15, but above this size the lowest-energy structures are decahedral or close-packed. Although structures based on the 98-molecule Leary tetrahedron, which have been inferred from experiment, are not lowest in energy for this potential, an examination of the energetics of a growth sequence leading to the Leary tetrahedron lends further support to the experimental assignments. An analysis of the potential energy surface topography and the thermodynamics of two example clusters indicates that the multiple-funnel topography is likely to have a strong influence on the dynamics of structure formation and that solid-solid transitions driven by differences in vibrational entropy are likely to be common.
Sense amplifier-based flip-flop

Timing elements, latches and flip-flops, are critical to performance of digital systems, due to tighter timing constraints and low power requirements. Short setup and hold times are essential, but often overlooked. Recently reported flip-flop structures achieved small delay between the latest point of data arrival and output transition. Typical representatives of these structures are sense amplifier-based flip-flop (SAFF), hybrid latch-flip-flop (HLFF) and semi-dynamic flipflop (SDFF). Hybrid flip-flops outperform reported sense amplifier-based designs, because the latter are limited by the output latch implementation. SAFF consists ofthe sense amplifier in the first stage and the RS latch in the second stage.
Understanding mesh-based peer-to-peer streaming

A common approach to peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming is to form a tree-based overlay coupled with push content delivery. This approach cannot effectively utilize the outgoing bandwidth of participating peers, and therefore it is not self-scaling. In contrast, swarm-like content delivery mechanisms exhibit the self-scaling property but incorporating them into live P2P streaming applications are challenging for two reasons: (i) in-time requirement of content delivery and (ii) the limited availability of future content. In this paper, we examine the key design issues and tradeoffs in incorporating swarm-like content delivery into mesh-based P2P streaming of live content. We show how overlay properties and the global pattern of content delivery could lead to the bandwidth and content bottlenecks among peers, respectively. Leveraging an organized view of the overlay, we present a global pattern for streaming content over a mesh-based overlay that can effectively utilize the outgoing bandwidth of most participating peers. We conduct ns simulation to explore the impact of overlay properties on the global pattern of content delivery and thus delivered quality to individual peers. In particular, we show that for a given scenario, there is a sweet range for peer degree in the overlay that maximizes delivered quality to individual peers with minimum buffer requirement at each peer.
Generic record combinators with static type checking

Common record systems only provide access to individual record fields. However, it is often useful to have generic record combinators, that is, functions that work with complete records of varying structure. Traditionally, generic record combinators can only be implemented in dynamically typed languages. In this paper, we present a record system for Haskell that allows us to define generic record combinators without giving up static type checks. The system is implemented as a library so that it works without modifications to the language. We achieve this mainly by using advanced type system features such as type equality constraints, type families, and higher-rank polymorphism. A key contribution of our paper is a technique for emulating subkinds, including subkind polymorphism. We use this to give the record system additional expressiveness. Our system is not only useful in itself. It also shows what features should be taken into account when designing language support for records.
Slicing the SCAM mug: a case study in semantic slicing

We describe an improved formalisation of slicing in WSL transformation theory and apply the result to a particularly challenging slicing problem: the SCAM mug (Anon, 2001). We present both syntactic and semantic slices of the mug program and give semantic slices for various generalisations of the program. Although there is no algorithm for constructing a minimal syntactic slice, we show that it is possible, in the WSL language, to derive a minimal semantic slice for any program and any slicing criteria.
‘Maternity migration’ and the increased sex ratio at birth in Hong Kong SAR

The sex ratio at birth (SRB) in Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) has recently increased dramatically. Using a data set (N = 850,331) of all recorded births in Hong Kong between 1995 and 2009, we calculated SRBs by parity and immigrant status. The findings indicate a strong son preference among Mainland Chinese who have travelled to Hong Kong to give birth, especially at parity two or above. Logistic regression models show that this tendency is significantly greater among more affluent couples and remains strong even among Mainland Chinese women resident in Hong Kong for any length of time. The SRB of Hong Kong-born couples, though elevated at higher parities, is less skewed. Hong Kong has been serving as an outlet for ‘elite’ Mainland couples to circumvent family planning restrictions. The analysis also suggests the advantages of a wider set of immigrant variables over a binary construct.
APID2NET: unified interactome graphic analyzer

MOTIVATION Exploration and analysis of interactome networks at systems level requires unification of the biomolecular elements and annotations that come from many different high-throughput or small-scale proteomic experiments. Only such integration can provide a non-redundant and consistent identification of proteins and interactions. APID2NET is a new tool that works with Cytoscape to allow surfing unified interactome data by querying APID server (http://bioinfow.dep.usal.es/apid/) to provide interactive analysis of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. The program is designed to visualize, explore and analyze the proteins and interactions retrieved, including the annotations and attributes associated to them, such as: GO terms, InterPro domains, experimental methods that validate each interaction, PubMed IDs, UniProt IDs, etc. The tool provides interactive graphical representation of the networks with all Cytoscape capabilities, plus new automatic tools to find concurrent functional and structural attributes along all protein pairs in a network. AVAILABILITY http://bioinfow.dep. usal.es/apid/apid2net.html. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Installation Guide and User's Guide are supplied at the Web site indicated above.
The lens: a classical model of embryonic induction providing new insights into cell determination in early development

The lens was the first tissue in which the concept of embryonic induction was demonstrated. For many years lens induction was thought to occur at the time the optic vesicle and lens placode came in contact. Since then, studies have revealed that lens placodal progenitor cells are specified already at gastrula stages, much earlier than previously believed, and independent of optic vesicle interactions. In this review, I will focus on how individual signalling molecules, in particular BMP, FGF, Wnt and Shh, regulate the initial specification of lens placodal cells and the progressive development of lens cells. I will discuss recent work that has shed light on the combination of signalling molecules and the molecular interactions that affect lens specification and proper lens formation. I will also discuss proposed tissue interactions important for lens development. A greater knowledge of the molecular interactions during lens induction is likely to have practical benefits in understanding the causes and consequences of lens diseases. Moreover, knowledge regarding lens induction is providing fundamental important insights into inductive processes in development in general.
Alkylation Base Damage Is Converted into Repairable Double-Strand Breaks and Complex Intermediates in G2 Cells Lacking AP Endonuclease

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are potent sources of genome instability. While there is considerable genetic and molecular information about the disposition of direct DSBs and breaks that arise during replication, relatively little is known about DSBs derived during processing of single-strand lesions, especially for the case of single-strand breaks (SSBs) with 3'-blocked termini generated in vivo. Using our recently developed assay for detecting end-processing at random DSBs in budding yeast, we show that single-strand lesions produced by the alkylating agent methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) can generate DSBs in G2-arrested cells, i.e., S-phase independent. These derived DSBs were observed in apn1/2 endonuclease mutants and resulted from aborted base excision repair leading to 3' blocked single-strand breaks following the creation of abasic (AP) sites. DSB formation was reduced by additional mutations that affect processing of AP sites including ntg1, ntg2, and, unexpectedly, ogg1, or by a lack of AP sites due to deletion of the MAG1 glycosylase gene. Similar to direct DSBs, the derived DSBs were subject to MRX (Mre11, Rad50, Xrs2)-determined resection and relied upon the recombinational repair genes RAD51, RAD52, as well as on the MCD1 cohesin gene, for repair. In addition, we identified a novel DNA intermediate, detected as slow-moving chromosomal DNA (SMD) in pulsed field electrophoresis gels shortly after MMS exposure in apn1/2 cells. The SMD requires nicked AP sites, but is independent of resection/recombination processes, suggesting that it is a novel structure generated during processing of 3'-blocked SSBs. Collectively, this study provides new insights into the potential consequences of alkylation base damage in vivo, including creation of novel structures as well as generation and repair of DSBs in nonreplicating cells.
Synthesizing Rule Sets for Query Optimizers from Components

Query optimizers are complex subsystems of database management systems. Modifying query optimizers to admit new algorithms or storage structures is quite difficult, but partly alleviated by extensible approaches to optimizer construction. Rule-based optimizers are a step in that direction, but from our experience, the rule sets of such optimizers are rather monolithic and brittle. Conceptually minor changes often require wholesale modifications to a rule set. Consequently, much can be done to improve the extensibility of rule-based optimizers. As a remedy, we present a tool called Prairie that is based on an algebra of layered optimizers. This algebra naturally leads to a building-blocks approach to rule-set construction. Defining customized rule sets and evolving previously defined rule sets is accomplished by composing building-blocks. We explain an implementation of Prairie and present experimental results that show how classical relational optimizers can be synthesized from building-blocks, and that the efficiency of query optimization is not sacrificed.
Nonlinear gain compression in microwave amplifiers using generalized power-series analysis and transformation of input statistics

Two methods are presented for the estimation of gain compression generated by a digitally modulated carrier passed through a nonlinear RF circuit. The first one is based on developing an analytical expression for gain compression based on the transformation of input signal statistics. The second one is based on approximated expressions derived from generalized power-series analysis. The techniques are evaluated by comparing measured and predicted gain compression in a CDMA system.
Enforcing service availability in mobile ad-hoc WANs

We address the problem of service availability in mobile ad-hoc WANs. We present a secure mechanism to stimulate end users to keep their devices turned on, to refrain from overloading the network, and to thwart tampering aimed at converting the device into a "selfish" one. Our solution is based on the application of a tamper resistant security module in each device and cryptographic protection of messages.
A Simple Method to Extract the Diffusion Length from the Output Parameters of Solar Cells - Application to Polycrystalline Silicon

This work presents a simple method to obtain the effective diffus ion length Leff of a solar cell directly from measured values of open circuit voltage, shor t circuit current density, and the doping density in the base of the cell. In the second part of this pa per, we extract Leff from literature data of polycrystalline silicon cells, with grain sizes from 10 -2 to 10 μm, modeling the extracted Leff as a function of the grain size g, and the recombination velocity SGB at the grain boundaries. For g > 1 μm, our model predicts 10 5 < SGB < 10 7 cm/s. Cells with g < 1 μm, are understood with 10 1 < SGB < 10 cm/s. This finding supports the hypothesis that the key to high effic ienc es at small grain sizes is the use of {220}-textured films.
Smart Materials and Structures

Statement of the Problem: Piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) is recognized as a promising solution for converting vibration energy into usable electricity, because it has high energy density and can be easily miniaturized for use in wireless sensor nodes. Metamaterial-based energy harvesting (MBEH) has been recently proposed as a breakthrough technology to drastically enhance the output electric power generated by a piezoelectric device. The metamaterial refers to an artificial structure, engineered to possess exotic properties such as a phononic bandgap. The phononic bandgap is defined as a certain range of frequencies within which mechanical waves cannot be transmitted through phononic crystals (PnC). This keynote talk mainly discusses about how the phononic bandgap contributes to the enhancement of energy harvesting performance.
Effects of weight loss on the course of idiopathic intracranial hypertension in women

Objective: To determine the role of weight loss in the treatment of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) in obese women. Methods: Chart review of 250 patients with suspected IIH revealed 58 women who met our criteria, did not undergo early surgical intervention, and had adequate documentation of visual status, papilledema, and weight at the baseline evaluation and at 6 months or longer. Patients were divided into two groups based on whether weight loss ≥2.5 kg occurred during any 3-month interval. Papilledema grade, visual acuity, and visual field grade at 6 months or longer and the time to improve each were recorded. Results: Mean time in months to improve one grade for papilledema and visual field in one eye was 4.0 versus 6.7 (p = 0.013) and 4.6 versus 12.2(p = 0.032), respectively, for the 38 patients with weight loss compared with the 20 patients with no weight loss. Papilledema resolved in 28/38 with weight loss (mean, 7.6 months) and 8/20 without weight loss (mean, 10.2 months; p = 0.352). There were no differences in final visual acuity or visual field between the two groups, but the papilledema grade was slightly better in the worst eye in each patient at baseline in the weight loss group (p = 0.03). Conclusions: Weight reduction is associated with more rapid recovery of both papilledema and visual field dysfunction in patients with IIH compared with those who do not lose weight.
Rapid quantification of DNA methylation through dNMP analysis following bisulfite-PCR

We report a novel method for rapid quantification of the degree of DNA methylation of a specific gene. Our method combined bisulfite-mediated PCR and quantification of deoxyribonucleoside monophosphate (dNMP) contents in the PCR product through capillary electrophoresis. A specific bisulfite-PCR product was enzymatically hydrolyzed to dNMP monomers which were quantitatively analyzed through subsequent capillary electrophoresis. PCR following bisulfite treatment converts unmethylated cytosines to thymines while leaving methyl-cytosines unchanged. Then the ratio of cytosine to thymine determined by capillary electrophoresis represents the ratio of methyl-cytosine to cytosine in genomic locus of interest. Pure oligonucleotides with known sequences were processed in parallel as standards for normalization of dNMP peaks in capillary electrophoresis. Sources of quantification uncertainty such as carryovers of dNTPs or primers and incomplete hydrolysis were examined and ruled out. When the method was applied to samples with known methylation levels (by bisulfite-mediated sequencing) as a validation, deviations were within ±5%. After bisulfite-PCR, the analytical procedure can be completed within 1.5 h.
Systematic Preprocessing of Data Dependent Constructs for Embedded Systems

Data transfers and storage are dominating contributors to the area and power consumption for all modern multimedia applications. A cost-efficient realisation of these systems can be obtained by using high-level memory optimisations. This paper demonstrates that the state-of-the-art memory optimisation techniques only partly can deal with code from real-life multimedia applications. We propose a systematic preprocessing methodology that can be applied on top of the existing work. This opens more opportunities for existing memory optimisation techniques. Our methodology is complemented with a postprocessing step, which eliminates the negative effects of preprocessing and may further improve the code quality [7,10]. Our methodology has been applied on several real-life multimedia applications. Results show a decrease in the number of main memory accesses up to 45.8% compared to applying only state-of-the-art techniques.