Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Study of the Chemical Interactions at the Interface Between Polymeric Powder/Fibre and White Cement

Concrete, due to its low cost, durability and fire resistance, is one of the world’s most widely used construction materials. Concrete is typically reinforced with steel bars and welded wire mesh. Since the cost of steel is increasing and steel corrosion is a significant contributor to structural failure, it is advantageous to find an alternative replacement reinforcement material which can not only replace the steel, but also resist corrosion. Over the past few decades, polymeric fibres have been used as concrete reinforcement. The chemical bond between the polymeric fibre and the cementitious matrix is an important factor in the fibre’s performance as a concrete reinforcement. Despite the great importance of the chemical bonding at the polymeric fibre/concrete interface, the chemical bonding at the interface is not well understood. To investigate the chemical interactions between polymeric materials and concrete, model systems of polymeric powder/white cement and polymeric fibre/white cement were chosen, where white cement was chosen for its suitability for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments. The chemical interactions between poly(ethylenevinyl acetate) (EVA), poly(ether imide) (PEI), and poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) polymeric powders were studied via C NMR spectroscopy. It was found that EVA admixture undergoes hydrolysis in a cementitious matrix and follows a pseudo-second order kinetics model up to 32 days of cement hydration. PEI was also found to undergo hydrolysis at the imide functional group in a cementitious matrix. PVDF powder undergoes dehydrofluorination in the cementitious environment, producing a brown coloured polymer which is a result of conjugation of the polymer backbone. The interfacial transition zone between fluoropolymeric powder/white cement and steel and polymeric fibres (high density polyethylene/polypropylene, poly(vinyl alcohol), PEI, PVDF, and Nylon 6.6) was studied at short range using F, Al, and Ca NMR spectroscopy and at long range using the scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy method. It was concluded that the chemistry of polymeric fibres themselves can alter the surrounding interfacial transition zone such that the calcium silicate hydrate favours a tobermorite or jennite-like structure, which could contribute to a strong or weak interface.
THE EFFECT OF FRESH AND FROZEN BELLIES ON BACON PROCESSING CHARACTERISTICS AND BACON QUALITY

i Acknowledgements . iii Review of Literature I. Curing Technology . 1 A. Historical Perspective . 1 B. Curing Methods . l C. Curing Ingredients . 3 a. Water. 3 b. Nitrites . 3 c. Phosphates . 6 d. Salt . 8 e. Sugar . 9 f. Sodium Erythorbate . 10 g. Smoke . 11 II. Type of Belly . 12 D. Fresh vs. Frozen . 12 E. Freezing Meat . 13 F. Freezing Methods . 15 G. Frozen Storage . 16 H. Thawing Frozen Meat . 18 III. Animal production parameters that affect bacon composition . 20 I. Breed . 20 J. Sex . 22 IV. Composition of the belly . 24 A. Fat. 25 B. Fat Quality . 26 Materials and Methods V. Bacon Manufacture . 30 A. Slaughter and Fabrication . 30 B. Receiving and Storage . 30 C. Defrosting . 30 D. Pickle Production . 31 E. Pickle Injection . 31 F. Thermal Processing . 32 G. Chilling/Tempering . 32 H. Commercial Pressing . 32 I. Slicing . 32 VI. Belly Evaluation and Sampling . 33 A. Sliced Bacon Evaluation . 33 B. Fatty Acid Analysis . 34 C. Shattering . 35 a. Within Belly Design . 35 b. Shatter Recording Considerations . 36 c. Recording Shatter Marks . 36 D. Composition-Proximate Analysis . 36 VII. Precooked Bacon Processing . 37 VIII. Statistical Analysis . 38 IX. Tables . 40 X. Figures . 42 XI. References . 43 The effect of fresh and frozen bellies on bacon processing characteristics XII. Abstract . 52 XII
Book Review: Modern Tribology Handbook, Volume One: Principles of Tribology and Volume Two: Materials, Coatings, and Industrial Applications edited by Bharat Bhushan

Modern Tribology Handbook, Volume One: Principles of Tribology and Volume Two: Materials, Coatings, and Industrial Applications, edited by Bharat Bhushan. 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, USA, CRC Press LLC, 2001. Vol. 1, 765pp. , Vol. 2, 1690pp. ISBN: 0-8493-8403-6
Prevention of Chronic Deterioration of Heart Allograft by Recombinant Adeno-Associated Virus-Mediated Heme Oxygenase-1 Gene Transfer

Background—Allograft deterioration is the major obstacle to organ transplantation as a long-term treatment of end-stage heart failure. In this study, we transduced the antioxidant gene, heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), to heart grafts using a recombinant adeno-associated viral vector (rAAV) in a rat heart transplantation model and investigated its potentiality in prevention of chronic graft deterioration. Methods and Results—rAAV/HO-1 was administered to heart grafts through the coronary arteries during cold preservation. We investigated the expression patterns and activities of transgene, graft survival, graft histomorphology, and relevance of HO-1 expression on graft survival and chronic graft deterioration by itself. Long-term allograft survival can be achieved by rAAV/HO-1-mediated stable transgene expression. The development of graft arteriosclerosis and interstitial fibrosis was prevented in rAAV/HO-1–transduced allografts on day 100. rAAV/HO-1–mediated long-term graft protection was accompanied by remarkable downregulation of the intragraft mRNA level of macrophage migration inhibitory factor, tumor necrosis factor-&agr;, and transforming growth factor-&bgr;1. Blockage of HO activities by zinc protoporphyrin IX at different posttransplant phases showed that the stable expression of HO-1 is a prerequisite for both survival of grafts and prevention of graft arteriosclerosis. Conclusions—rAAV/HO-1 gene transfer represents a novel therapeutic approach to prevent chronic allograft deterioration in clinical heart transplantation.
Elasticurves: exploiting stroke dynamics and inertia for the real-time neatening of sketched 2D curves

Elasticurves present a novel approach to neaten sketches in real-time, resulting in curves that combine smoothness with user-intended detail. Inspired by natural variations in stroke speed when drawing quickly or with precision, we exploit stroke dynamics to distinguish intentional fine detail from stroke noise. Combining inertia and stroke dynamics, elasticurves can be imagined as the trace of a pen attached to the user by an oscillation-free elastic band. Sketched quickly, the elasticurve spatially lags behind the stroke, smoothing over stroke detail, but catches up and matches the input stroke at slower speeds. Connectors, such as lines or circular-arcs link the evolving elasticurve to the next input point, growing the curve by a responsiveness fraction along the connector. Responsiveness is calibrated, to reflect drawing skill or device noise. Elasticurves are theoretically sound and robust to variations in stroke sampling. Practically, they neaten digital strokes in real-time while retaining the modeless and visceral feel of pen on paper.
Counteract Resistance against Infection Facilitate Bacterial Colonization, and Impair the Development of Gastritis, -Specific Antibodies Helicobacter pylori

In recent years, Abs have been considered a correlate rather than an effector of resistance against Helicobacter pylori infection. However, it is still poorly understood to what extent Ab production correlates with gastric immunopathology. Here we report that Abs not only are dispensable for protection, but they are detrimental to elimination of the bacteria and appear to impair gastric inﬂammatory responses. We found that the initial colonization with H. pylori bacteria was normal in the B cell-deﬁcient ( (cid:1) MT) mice, whereas at later times ( > 8 wk) most of the bacteria were cleared, concomitant with the development of severe gastritis. In contrast, wild-type (WT) mice exhibited extensive bacterial colonization and only mild gastric inﬂammation, even at 16 wk after inoculation. Oral immunizations with H. pylori lysate and cholera toxin adjuvant stimulated comparable levels of protection in (cid:1) MT and WT mice. The level of protection in both strains correlated well with the severity of the postimmunization gastritis. Thus, T cells were responsible for the gastritis, whereas Abs, including potentially host cell cross-reactive Abs, were not involved in causing the gastritis. The T cells in (cid:1) MT and WT mice produced high and comparable levels of IFN- (cid:2) to recall Ag at 2 and after 8 wk, whereas IL-4 was detected after 8 wk only, indicating that Th1 activity dominated the early phase of protection, whereas later a mixed Th1 and Th2 activity was seen. The Journal of Immunology, 2004, 172: 5024–5033.
Approximate majorization and fair online load balancing

This article relates the notion of fairness in online routing and load balancing to <i>vector majorization</i> as developed by Hardy et al. [1929]. We define α<i>-supermajorization</i> as an approximate form of vector majorization, and show that this definition generalizes and strengthens the prefix measure proposed by Kleinberg et al. [2001] as well as the popular notion of <i>max-min fairness</i>. The article revisits the problem of online load-balancing for unrelated 1-∞ machines from the viewpoint of fairness. We prove that a greedy approach is <i>O</i>(log <i>n</i>)-supermajorized by all other allocations, where <i>n</i> is the number of jobs. This means the greedy approach is globally <i>O</i>(log <i>n</i>)-<i>fair</i>. This may be contrasted with polynomial lower bounds presented by Goel et al. [2001] for fair online routing.We also define a machine-centric view of fairness using the related concept of <i>submajorization</i>. We prove that the greedy online algorithm is globally <i>O</i>(log <i>m</i>)-<i>balanced</i>, where <i>m</i> is the number of machines.
Grafting Low Contents of Branched Polyethylenimine onto Carbon Fibers to Effectively Improve Their Interfacial Shear Strength with an Epoxy Matrix

The mechanical properties of carbon fiber (CF) reinforced composites are greatly dependent on the interfacial strength between the CFs and matrix. To improve the interfacial adhesion of carbon fiber/epoxy composites, branched polyethylenimine (PEI) is grafted onto the CFs treated in a mixed acid at optimized process time. The chemical compositions and bonds of functionalized CFs are characterized by thermal gravimetric analysis, Fourier‐transform infrared, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The surface structures and morphologies of various CFs are analyzed by Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. Microbond test is adopted to evaluate the interfacial shear strength (IFSS) between the CFs and epoxy matrix. The results show that the CFs modified by low molecular weight PEI are better than those modified by high molecular weight PEI. The IFSS of PEI modified CFs can reach a maximum of 107.2 ± 14.3 MPa at a low functionalization degree compared with 78.1 ± 11.6 MPa of unmodified CFs. The branched structure and high density of active amine groups on the PEI chains are responsible for the improved interfacial strength.
Building Readability Lexicons with Unannotated Corpora

Lexicons of word difficulty are useful for various educational applications, including readability classification and text simplification. In this work, we explore automatic creation of these lexicons using methods which go beyond simple term frequency, but without relying on age-graded texts. In particular, we derive information for each word type from the readability of the web documents they appear in and the words they co-occur with, linearly combining these various features. We show the efficacy of this approach by comparing our lexicon with an existing coarse-grained, low-coverage resource and a new crowdsourced annotation.
Rubbing and tapping for precise and rapid selection on touch-screen displays

We introduce two families of techniques, rubbing and tapping, that use zooming to make possible precise interaction on passive touch screens, and describe examples of each. Rub-Pointing uses a diagonal rubbing gesture to integrate pointing and zooming in a single-handed technique. In contrast, Zoom-Tapping is a two-handed technique in which the dominant hand points, while the non-dominant hand taps to zoom, simulating multi-touch functionality on a single-touch display. Rub-Tapping is a hybrid technique that integrates rubbing with the dominant hand to point and zoom, and tapping with the non-dominant hand to confirm selection. We describe the results of a formal user study comparing these techniques with each other and with the well-known Take-Off and Zoom-Pointing selection techniques. Rub-Pointing and Zoom-Tapping had significantly fewer errors than Take-Off for small targets, and were significantly faster than Take-Off and Zoom-Pointing. We show how the techniques can be used for fluid interaction in an image viewer and in Google Maps.
No association of the GABAA receptor genes on chromosome 5 with alcoholism in the collaborative study on the genetics of alcoholism sample

A substantial body of literature suggests that γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) may be involved in the neurochemical pathways contributing to alcohol use and related disorders. Chromosome 5 contains a cluster of GABAA receptor genes, GABRA1, GABRA6, GABRB2, and GABRG2, which have been among the most extensively studied in relation to alcohol use. These studies have yielded mixed results. Using data from large, multiplex alcoholic families collected as part of the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA), we sought to provide more conclusive evidence regarding the role of the GABAA receptor genes on chromosome 5. Multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were tested in each of the four chromosome 5q GABAA receptor genes, and we conducted both classic trio‐based association analyzes and extended pedigree analyzes. We found no consistent evidence of association with alcohol dependence or alcohol dependence comorbid with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) for any of the regions tested in the chromosome 5 GABAA receptor genes. These analyses suggest that the GABAA receptor genes on chromosome 5 do not play a strong role in alcohol dependence. Future studies are planned to test whether these genes are more important in influencing behavioral endophenotypes related to the risk of alcohol dependence. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Infrared scanning near‐field optical microscopy investigates order and clusters in model membranes

Due to its surface sensitivity and high spatial resolution, scanning near‐field optical microscopy (SNOM) has a significant potential to study the lateral organization of membrane domains and clusters. Compared to other techniques, infrared near‐field microscopy in the spectroscopic mode has the advantage to be sensitive to specific chemical bonds. In fact, spectroscopic SNOM in the infrared spectral range (IR‐SNOM) reveals the chemical content of the sample with a lateral resolution around 100 nm ( Cricenti et al., 1998a, 1998b, 2003 ).
Routing protocol in intervehicle communication systems: a survey

Communication technology for vehicles has become an important topic for research. IEEE standards including IEEE 802.11p and IEEE P1609.1-4 have emerged to provide a framework for intervehicular communication (IVC). However, due to particular characteristics of IVC, such as high mobility, unstable connectivity, and network partitioning, information routing becomes inevitably challenging. This article reviews the recent research progress to highlight research challenges in vehicular routing protocol as a guideline for future development of IVC applications. The article focuses on the IEEE DSRC/WAVE standard. The state of the art in IVC routing protocols is surveyed, and open issues for further research are highlighted in the article.
Hrs regulates multivesicular body formation via ESCRT recruitment to endosomes

Hrs and the endosomal sorting complexes required for transport, ESCRT-I, -II, and -III, are involved in the endosomal sorting of membrane proteins into multivesicular bodies and lysosomes or vacuoles. The ESCRT complexes are also required for formation of intraluminal endosomal vesicles and for budding of certain enveloped RNA viruses such as HIV. Here, we show that Hrs binds to the ESCRT-I subunit Tsg101 via a PSAP motif that is conserved in Tsg101-binding viral proteins. Depletion of Hrs causes a reduction in membrane-associated ESCRT-I subunits, a decreased number of multivesicular bodies and an increased size of late endosomes. Even though Hrs mainly localizes to early endosomes and Tsg101 to late endosomes, the two proteins colocalize on a subpopulation of endosomes that contain lyso-bisphosphatidic acid. Overexpression of Hrs causes accumulation of Tsg101 on early endosomes and prevents its localization to late endosomes. We conclude that Hrs mediates the initial recruitment of ESCRT-I to endosomes and, thereby, indirectly regulates multivesicular body formation.
Live mashup tools: Challenges and opportunities

Live programming is a programming style in which the repetitive task of compiling and running the software being programmed is managed automatically. This style can be a helpful practice in End-User Development (EUD) where the nonprofessional end-users are to be supported through techniques and tools that empower them to create or modify software artifacts. Mashups a form of lightweight Web applications composing reusable content and functionalities available on the Web are a popular target for EUD activities on the Web. EUD for mashups is enabled by intuitive composition environments, called mashup tools. In this paper, we introduce live mashup tools, a new class of mashup tools based on the live programming style. We give a comprehensive definition and classification of live mashup tools, giving examples of how well existing tools fit in this category and discuss open research challenges and opportunities.
A Geometric Interpretation of Hidden Markov Model

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between speech trajectories and the hidden Markov model. The speech utterances were transformed into speech feature vectors and the trajectories displayed on a two dimensional space. The hidden Markov models were also displayed on a two dimensional space. By visual examination, we think that the states seem to be associated with a distinct phoneme of the utterance. Therefore, the number of states required in the contonuous HMM is related to the number of phonemes in the word to be modelled. In the semi-continuous HMM, it is also possible that the same gaussian probability density function is shared by the same phoneme sound in different semi-continuous HMMs.
Anti-Inflammatory, Anticholinesterase, and Antioxidant Potential of Scopoletin Isolated from Canarium patentinervium Miq. (Burseraceae Kunth)

Bioassay guided fractionation of an ethanol extract of leaves of Canarium patentinervium Miq. (Burseraceae Kunth.) led to the isolation of scopoletin. The structure of this coumarin was elucidated based on spectroscopic methods including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR-1D and 2D) and mass spectrometry. Scopoletin inhibited the enzymatic activity of 5-lipoxygenase and acetyl cholinesterase with an IC50 equal to 1.76 ± 0.01 μM and 0.27 ± 0.02 mM, respectively, and confronted oxidation in the ABTS, DPPH, FRAP, and β-carotene bleaching assay with EC50 values equal to 5.62 ± 0.03 μM, 0.19 ± 0.01 mM, 0.25 ± 0.03 mM and 0.65 ± 0.07 mM, respectively. Given the aforementioned evidence, it is tempting to speculate that scopoletin represents an exciting scaffold from which to develop leads for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
ThrH , a hornoserine kinase isozyme with in vivo phosphoserine phosphatase activity in Pseudornonas aeruginosa

LCB1 and LISM*, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 31 chemin J Aiguier, BP71, 13277 Ma rsei I le, France Homoserine kinase, the product of the thrB gene, catalyses an obligatory step of threonine biosynthesis. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, unlike Escherichia coli, inactivation of the previously identified thrB gene does not result in threonine auxotrophy. A new gene, named thrH, was isolated that, when expressed in E. coli thrB mutant strains, results in complementation of the mutant phenotype. In P. aeruginosa, threonine auxotrophy is observed only when both thrB and thrH are simultaneously inactivated. Thus, thrH encodes a protein with an in vivo homoserine-kinase-like activity. Surprisingly, fhrH overexpression allows complementation of serine auxotrophy of E. coli and P. aeruginosa serB mutants. These mutants are affected in the phosphoserine phosphatase protein, an enzyme involved in serine biosynthesis. Comparison analysis revealed sequence homology between ThrH and the SerB proteins from different organisms. This could explain the in vivo phosphoserine phosphatase activity of ThrH when overproduced. ThrH differs from the protein encoded by the serB gene which was identified in P. aeruginosa. Thus, two SerB-like proteins co-exist in P. aeruginosa, a situation also found in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Fast Regular Expression Matching Using FPGAs

This paper presents an efficient method for finding matches to a given regular expression in given text using FPGAs. To match a regular expression of length n, a serial machine requires 0(2^n) memory and takes 0(1) time per text character. The proposed approach reqiures only 0(n^2) space and still process a text character in 0(1) time (one clock cycle). The improvement is due to the Nondetermineistic Finite Automaton (NFA) used to perform the matching. As far as the authors are aware, this is the first prctical use of a nondeterministic state machine on programmable logic. Furthermore, the paper presents a simple, fast algorithm that quickly constructs the NFA for the given regular expression. Fast NFA construction is crucial because the NFA structure depends on the regular expression, which is known only at runtime. Implementations of the algorithm for conventional FPGAs and the self-reconfigurable Gate Array (SRGA) are described. To evaluate performance, the NFA logic was mapped onto the Virtex XCV100 FPGA and the SRGA. Also, the performance of GNU grep for matching regular expressions was evaluated on an 800 MHz Pentium III machine. The proposed approach was faster than best case grep performance in most cases. It was orders of magnitude faster than worst case grep performance. Logic for the largest NFA considered fit in less than a 1000 CLBs while DFA storage for grep in the worst case consumed a few hundred megabytes.