Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cure Kinetics of Electrically Conductive Adhesives for Solar Cell Interconnection

Electrically conductive adhesives (ECA) provide an alternative lead-free interconnection technology for crystalline silicon solar cells with lower thermomechanical stress than standard soldering. They show high potential for use in emerging cell concepts like metal-wrap-through (MWT) or heterojunction technology. Obviously, curing of ECA is a critical step along the interconnection process. Understanding and predicting its cure kinetics is essential for cost-effective and reliable module manufacturing. The cure reaction of an ECA can be described by an autocatalytic reaction model. In order to determine the model parameters, empirical kinetic information of the ECA is needed, which we obtain with dynamic differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). With the use of isoconversional methods the activation energy in dependence of the degree of cure is determined. The model calculates the degree of cure for any given temperature profile. We validate the model with an arbitrary temperature profile in the DSC and find good agreement between experiment and simulation within 3-8% absolute difference in the degree of cure. As the methods given in this paper are easily adopted for the crosslinking reaction of ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), we simulate both the curing of ECA and the crosslinking of EVA during a typical lamination process.
Integrating Distributed Data Storage of a Smart City Public Administration

The developments and increasing solutions offered by Cloud Computing technologies represent a great opportunity for e-governance of smart-cities. The benefits provided by Cloud-based technologies allow us to re-design new services to solve many problems afflicting e-governance and public administration in each country. In particular, one of the primarily need of Public Administration (PA) is the interoperability between the different areas and districts, which is rather complex due to the lack of standard schemes for data modeling. In this paper we propose a cloud-based approach for supporting such interoperability by a customizable DBMS mapping tool especially dedicated to smart city governance.
The Effects of Exchange Rate and Commodity Price Volatilities on Trade Volumes of Major Agricultural Commodities

The Effects of Exchange Rate and Commodity Price Volatilities on Trade Volumes of Major Agricultural Commodities A K Iftekharul Haque University of Guelph, 2012 Advisor: Professor Getu Hailu This thesis examines the effects of price and exchange rate volatilities on the volume of trade corn, soybean, wheat and rice. Empirical results indicate that price volatility and exchange rate volatilities do not have effects on Canada’s export of wheat and soybean, and Canada’s import of corn and rice. This thesis also examined the effects of exchange rate and commodity price volatilities on developed countries’ trade and developing countries’ trade separately. Results show that trade between developing countries is more sensitive to exchange rate and commodity price volatilities than trade between developed countries.
Persistency of the Momentum Effect

The intermediate‐term momentum persistency is not universal among all stocks. More than 40% of winners and losers immediately fall out of their respective groups in the month following formation, resulting in a monthly loss of more than 17% for a momentum strategy constructed on such stocks. By contrast, persistent winners and losers, defined as those staying in their groups for at least one more month, exhibit much stronger momentum persistency. Further analysis indicates that, consistent with the delayed reaction hypothesis for price momentum, the persistency is stronger for stocks with greater information asymmetry and more extensively heterogeneous investor beliefs.
Frailty Attenuates the Impact of Metformin on Reducing Mortality in Older Adults with Type 2 Diabetes.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether the protective effect of metformin against death is modified by frailty status in older adults with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted a cohort study during October 1, 1999-September 30, 2006 among veterans aged 65-89 years old with type 2 diabetes but without history of liver, renal diseases, or cancers, who had sulfonylureas or metformin as the sole antidiabetic drug for ≥180 days. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to compare hazard rates of all-cause mortality between the metformin and sulfonylurea users adjusting for the propensity score of metformin use and covariates: age, race/ethnicity, diabetes duration, Charlson comorbidity score, statin use, smoking status, BMI, LDL, and HbA1c. RESULTS In this cohort of 2,415 veterans, 307 (12.7%) were metformin users, 2,108 (87.3%) were sulfonylurea users, the mean age was 73.7±5.2 years, the mean study period was 5.6±2.3 years, the mean HbA1c at baseline was 6.7±1.0%, 23% had diabetes for ≥10 years, and 43.6% (N=1,048) died during the study period. For patients with and without frailty, the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of death for metformin vs. sulfonylurea use were 0.92 (95% CI=0.90-1.31, p-value=0.19) and 0.69 (95% CI = 0.60-0.79, p-value<0.001), respectively. Logistic regression analyses showed that metformin (vs. sulfonylurea) was significantly associated with a decreased odds of frailty (OR: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.61-0.71, p-value <.0001). CONCLUSION Our study suggests that metformin could potentially promote longevity via preventing frailty in older adults with type 2 diabetes.
Induction of tumor promotor-inducible genes in murine 3T3 cell lines and tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate-nonproliferative 3T3 variants can occur through protein kinase C-dependent and -independent pathways

We isolated a group of genes that are rapidly and transiently induced in 3T3 cells by tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate (TPA). These genes are called TIS genes (for TPA-inducible sequences). Epidermal growth factor (EGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), and TPA activated TIS gene expression with similar induction kinetics. TPA pretreatment to deplete protein kinase C activity did not abolish the subsequent induction of TIS gene expression by epidermal growth factor or fibroblast growth factor; both peptide mitogens can activate TIS genes through a protein kinase C-independent pathway(s). We also analyzed TIS gene expression in three TPA-nonproliferative variants (3T3-TNR2, 3T3-TNR9, and A31T6E12A). The results indicate that (i) modulation of a TPA-responsive sodium-potassium-chloride transport system is not necessary for TIS gene induction either by TPA or by other mitogens and (ii) TIS gene induction is not sufficient to guarantee a proliferative response to mitogenic stimulation.
New terms for collective action in the public sector in Denmark: Lessons learned from the teacher lock-out in 2013

This article investigates the use of collective action in the public sector by analysing the Danish teacher lock-out in 2013. The social partners in the public sector in Denmark (and the other Nordic countries) engage in negotiations and reach agreements regarding wages and working conditions in accordance with an institutional set-up developed in the private sector. This also applies to the use of the so-called weapons of conflict – strikes/blockades and lock-outs/boycotts – in connection with labour disputes if the parties are unable to reach agreement through negotiations or mediation. But there is a big difference in the premises and conditions upon which collective industrial conflict as an institutionalised form of collective action proceeds when comparing the public and private sectors in Denmark. The article shows how the use of collective industrial conflicts in the public sector has a number of built-in systemic institutional flaws, as the public employers are the budgetary authority and legislators at the same time. This is not a new finding; however, these multiple roles become problematic when public employers use the lock-out weapon offensively in combination with state intervention to end the dispute, which was the case during the teacher lock-out in 2013 in Denmark. The article concludes with the presentation of a number of proposed institutional adjustments for bringing the public bargaining model into balance.
Enhancing Molecular Shape Comparison by Weighted Gaussian Functions

Shape comparing technologies based on Gaussian functions have been widely used in virtual screening of drug discovery. For efficiency, most of them adopt the First Order Gaussian Approximation (FOGA), in which the shape density of a molecule is represented as a simple sum of all individual atomic shape densities. In the current work, the effectiveness and error in shape similarity calculated by such an approximation are carefully analyzed. A new approach, which is called the Weighted Gaussian Algorithm (WEGA), is proposed to improve the accuracy of the first order approximation. The new approach significantly improves the accuracy of molecular volumes and reduces the error of shape similarity calculations by 37% using the hard-sphere model as the reference. The new algorithm also keeps the simplicity and efficiency of the FOGA. A program based on the new method has been implemented for molecular overlay and shape-based virtual screening. With improved accuracy for shape similarity scores, the new algorithm also improves virtual screening results, particularly when a shape-feature combo scoring function is used.
Genetic substitution of Cdk1 by Cdk2 leads to embryonic lethality and loss of meiotic function of Cdk2

It was believed that Cdk2-cyclin E complexes are essential to drive cells through the G1-S phase transition. However, it was discovered recently that the mitotic kinase Cdk1 (Cdc2a) compensates for the loss of Cdk2. In the present study, we tested whether Cdk2 can compensate for the loss of Cdk1. We generated a knockin mouse in which the Cdk2 cDNA was knocked into the Cdk1 locus (Cdk1Cdk2KI). Substitution of both copies of Cdk1 by Cdk2 led to early embryonic lethality, even though Cdk2 was expressed from the Cdk1 locus. In addition, we generated Cdk2-/- Cdk1+/Cdk2KI mice in which one copy of Cdk2 and one copy of Cdk1 were expressed from the Cdk1 locus and the Cdk2 gene was deleted from the endogenous Cdk2 locus. We found that both male and female Cdk2-/- Cdk1+/Cdk2KI mice were sterile, similar to Cdk2-/- mice, even though they expressed the Cdk2 protein from the Cdk1 locus in testes. The translocational and cell cycle properties of knockin Cdk2 in Cdk2-/- Cdk1+/Cdk2KI cells were comparable to those of endogenous Cdk2, but we detected premature transcriptional activation of Cdk1 during liver regeneration in the absence of Cdk2. This study provides evidence of the molecular differences between Cdk2 and Cdk1 and highlights that the timing of transcriptional activation and the genetic locus play important roles in determining the function of Cdk proteins in vivo.
Comparative study of the frequency splitting and bifurcation phenomena for equivalent circuits of the wireless power transfer system

This paper presents a study of the frequency splitting and bifurcation phenomena in the wireless power transfer systems. Using electric circuit model methods and mathematical calculus, the two phenomena are analyzed for all the possible configurations of the coupled circuits, i.e. seriesseries, series-parallel, parallel-series and parallel-parallel. For a specific case including two identical printed coils, for each configuration some characteristics are represented graphically and the appearance of each phenomenon is commented. The analytical results and the numerical simulations are correlated and commented comparatively, in order to obtain useful conclusions.
Feasibility of the single‐bolus strategy for measuring the partition coefficient of Gd‐DTPA in patients with myocardial infarction: Independence of image delay time and maturity of scar

The partition coefficient of Gd‐DTPA (λ) is elevated in infarcted relative to normal myocardium. Although MRI following an infusion of Gd‐DTPA allows for the quantification of λ, infarct imaging is more routinely performed using a bolus. In this study we sought to determine how image delay time and time postinfarction influence the estimation of λ by the bolus strategy. Both infusion and bolus imaging were performed twice in the same group of patients (N = 9): once at 3–4 weeks and again 6 months after reperfusion therapy for myocardial infarction (MI). Bolus estimates of λ were compared with those calculated after 60 min infusion, and comparisons were repeated at 6 months. The λ of infarcted myocardium was significantly greater than that of normal tissue, irrespective of either the technique used or the time postinfarction (P < 0.0001, for each). The concordance (Rc) between bolus and infusion estimates of λ was >0.83 for all image delays >4 min postinjection, and Rc at 2 min (0.78 ± 0.04) was significantly less than Rc determined for longer image delay times (P = 0.009). Rc did not change with time postinfarction (P = 0.604). Thus, the bolus strategy can be used to provide estimates of λ that are stable from 1–6 months postinfarction and independent of image delay time. Magn Reson Med, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Approximate Dynamic Programming Based on Expansive Projections

We present a general method to obtain convergent approximate value iteration algorithms with function approximation. The result is applicable to any arbitrary approximation architecture and generalizes existing results in the literature derived for particular approximation schemes. Additionally, we show how to obtain a convergent approximate mapping whose fixed point is the projection in the approximation space of a fixed point of the exact dynamic programming mapping with regards to a suitable subset norm. This result relies on evaluating the difference between successive iterates in the selected subset norm, which provides convergent procedures for any arbitrary approximation architecture
What Predicts Adjustment Among Law Students? A Longitudinal Panel Study

Abstract Although at the time of this article's publication, many anecdotes and cross-sectional studies had reported that law students experience significant distress during their 1st year, few researchers had controlled for prelaw school status (e.g., M. Garrison, B. Tomko, & I. Yip, 1996; L. Guinier, M. Fine, J. Balin, A. Bartow, & D. L. Stachel, 1994), and only a single group of researchers had explored a psychosocial factor that predicted these changes. The present authors tested 3 sets of potential predictors of adjustment: sources of stress, coping strategies, and relationship factors. The present data replicated declines in students' psychological health, physical health, and attitudes toward law over the 1st year of school. That result supports the generalizability and currency of previous studies. In contrast to other researchers, the present authors found few gender differences. Less relationship happiness, less emotional support, and use of less active coping tactics at the beginning of the year predicted poorer outcomes at the end of the year. Strain from academic pressures, lack of personal time, and social isolation were correlated with poorer outcomes.
Dropout effect on probabilistic neural network

To ignore noisy, skewed, correlated, imbalanced and unnecessary features from real life problems, the feature subset selection with learning algorithm was faced some problems of selecting these relevant features. Several factors like-skewed, high kurtosis valued, dependence or correlation influenced features as well as the classifiers performance. A Dropout technique (feature subset selection method) was used to select relevant and important features and mixed with a classifier named as Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) to find the performance. This study conducted Dropout technique with PNN to prevent above irrelevant features to get better performance. The main task of this method was to apply several techniques (by omitting some fixed features like-skewed, high kurtosis valued, dependent or correlated and Dropout) with PNN in several datasets and noticed that the overall performance for all datasets was significantly improved or unchanged for Dropout with PNN(DPNN) and DPNN always performed better than others.
Beyond rational behaviour: the non-financial variables that condition shareholder action during a takeover

This article provides experimental evidence that bidder and target shareholders of a takeover announcement exhibit differences in their actions explained by individual traits and by the environment in which investors must decide. These variables should be considered when designing an adequate investor protection policy. Before the crisis, investor protection regulation was based on the rational behaviour hypothesis and characterized by an overreliance on disclosure and financial literacy strategies. However, the new European policy on financial services has acknowledged the lack of adequate protection, and has increased transparency and access to information for investors in MIFID II and MiFIR.
Finding Good Compiler Optimization Sets - A Case-based Reasoning Approach

Case-Based Reasoning have been used for a long times to solve several problems. The first Case-Based Reasoning used to find good compiler optimization sets, for an unseen program, proposed several strategies to tune the system. However, this work did not indicate the best parametrization. In addition, it evaluated the proposed approach using only kernels. Our paper revisit this work, in order to present an detail analysis of an Case-Based Reasoning system, applied in the context of compilers. In adition, we propose new strategies to tune the system. Experiments indicate that Case-Based Reasoning is a good choice to find compiler optimization sets that outperform a well-engineered compiler optimization level. Our Case-Based Reasoning approach achieves an average performance of 4.84% and 7.59% for cBench and SPEC CPU2006, respectively. In addition, experiments also indicate that Case-Based Reasoning outperforms the approach proposed by Purini and Jain, namely Best10.
A new method of using heart rate to represent energy expenditure: the Total Heart Beat Index.

OBJECTIVES To develop a new method of representing energy expenditure using heart rate and to determine its reproducibility compared with the criterion standard of oxygen cost. DESIGN Repeated-measures design. SETTING University gait analysis laboratory and gymnasium at 2 spinal injury units. PARTICIPANTS Twenty unimpaired adults and 17 subjects with spinal cord injury (SCI). INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Heart rate and oxygen consumption were measured on 20 unimpaired adults walking under controlled steady-state and nonsteady-state conditions. New methods of estimating energy expenditure by using heart rate were compared with oxygen consumption, oxygen cost, and Physiological Cost Index (PCI). Nine subjects with SCI, walking with and without functional electric stimulation, were assessed to determine use of these new measures with this group. Sensitivity to change of the new measurement techniques was investigated in 10 subjects with SCI, comparing wheelchair pushing to walking. RESULTS The Total Heart Beat Index (THBI) was developed as a new index, calculated by dividing the total heartbeats during activity by distance traveled. High repeatability was found under steady-state and nonsteady-state conditions (intraclass correlation coefficients,.893-.995). Sensitivity to change in activity level was also shown. CONCLUSIONS The THBI is a simple parameter to calculate from continuous heart rate data and provides a reproducible alternative to gas analysis and the PCI.
Cooperative MPR selection to reduce topology control packets in OLSR

In this paper, we try to reduce the amount of control traffic of the optimized link state routing protocol (OLSR). OLSR is a proactive routing protocol for mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). OLSR is known well as a low control traffic routing protocol, since it adopts multipoint relays (MPRs). MPRs concept significantly reduces the number of broadcast messages during the flooding process. Although MPR concept is optimal for each node to transmit its messages to all two hop neighbors, we show there are still redundant control messages which can be piggybacked with other control messages in dense networks. This redundancy is caused by the selection procedure of MPRs, which run on each node independently of its neighbor nodes. In this paper, we propose a cooperative MPR selection procedure, to increase messages which are piggybacked into a single control packet. Through simulation, we demonstrate that the proposed cooperative MPR selection procedure reduces the number of routing packets in high-density network, and network reachability is kept similar to that of the conventional MPR selection procedure.
Mutations affecting regulation of methionine biosynthetic genes isolated by use of met-lac fusions

Fusions of the lac genes to the promoters of four structural genes in the methionine biosynthetic pathway, metA, metB, metE, and metF, were obtained by the use of the Mu d(Ap lac) bacteriophage. The levels of beta-galactosidase in these strains could be derepressed by growth under methionine-limiting conditions. Furthermore, growth in the presence of vitamin B12 repressed the synthesis of beta-galactosidase in strains containing a fusion of lacZ to the metE promoter, phi(metE'-lacZ+). Mutations affecting the regulation of met-lac fusions were generated by the insertion of Tn5. Tn5 insertions were obtained at the known regulatory loci metJ and metK. Interestingly, a significant amount of methionine adenosyltransferase activity remained in the metK mutant despite the fact that the mutation was generated by an insertion. Several Tn5-induced regulatory mutations were isolated by screening for high-level beta-galactosidase expression in a phi(metE'-lacZ+) strain in the presence of vitamin B12. Tn5 insertions mapping at the btuB (B12 uptake), metH (B12 dependent tetrahydropteroylglutamate methyltransferase), and metF (5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase) loci were obtained. The isolation of the metH mutant was consistent with previous suggestions that the metH gene product is required for the repression of metE by vitamin B12. The metF::Tn5 insertion was of particular interest since it suggested that a functional metf gene product was also needed for repression of metE by vitamin B12.
What happened after #StandwithWendy? The impact of social media campaigns on gendered framing in coverage of women candidates

Social media is irrefutably part of the political sphere, especially in regard to how journalists stay in touch with their sources and audience. Recent case studies, such as the coordinated social campaign around Wendy Davis’ abortion-rights filibuster, provide a look at how this online activity influences traditional news coverage. This qualitative content analysis will compare gendered frames of Davis’ campaign to a similar campaign to measure whether the social activity changed discussion about the gubernatorial race. Committee: Laura Johnston Scott Swafford Barbara Cohran