Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tunable wavelength filter using nano-sized droplets of liquid crystal

An electrically tunable optical filter has been developed that uses a polymer containing fine droplets of nematic liquid crystal as the active cavity in a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI). This FPI filter, whose finesse was 62, had a free spectral range of 37 nm in the 1.55-/spl mu/m range with a full-width at half maximum of 0.6 nm and a transmission loss of 2.4 dB. The polarization dependent loss was smaller than 0.17 dB. The transmitted peak wavelength decreased with an electric field. This resulted in a tuning range of 10 nm at 300 V. The switching time was about 370 /spl mu/s.
A Dense Point-to-Point Alignment Method for Realistic 3D Face Morphing and Animation

We present a new point matching method to overcome the dense point-to-point alignment of scanned 3D faces. Instead of using the rigid spatial transformation in the traditional iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm, we adopt the thin plate spline (TPS) transformation to model the deformation of different 3D faces. Because TPS is a non-rigid transformation with good smooth property, it is suitable for formulating the complex variety of human facial morphology. A closest point searching algorithm is proposed to keep one-to-one mapping, and to get good efficiency the point matching method is accelerated by a KD-tree method. Having constructed the dense point-to-point correspondence of 3D faces, we create 3D face morphing and animation by key-frames interpolation and obtain realistic results. Comparing with ICP algorithm and the optical flow method, the presented point matching method can achieve good matching accuracy and stability. The experiment results have shown that our method is efficient for dense point objects registration.
Abundance and distribution of the tsetse flies, Glossina austeni and G. brevipalpis, in different habitats in South Africa

Abstract. The distribution and abundance of Glossina austeni Newstead and Glossina brevipalpis Newstead (Diptera: Glossinidae) were studied in the three main vegetation types in Zululand, KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa. During a period of 12 months, a trap transect consisting of 38 H‐traps traversing the three vegetation types was monitored. The Index of Apparent Abundance (IAA) for G. brevipalpis was high in indigenous forest and open grassland but lower in exotic plantations. Glossina austeni, on the other hand, was captured mainly in or adjacent to indigenous forest. The seasonal trend in the IAA did not differ between vegetation types. The findings on the distribution of G. brevipalpis are in contrast with the historic records. Historically, this species was considered to be restricted to areas with a dense overhead canopy and high relative humidity. The repercussions of these findings for the epidemiology of livestock trypanosomiasis and the control of tsetse in Zululand are discussed.
Monophasic Fibrous and Poorly Differentiated Synovial Sarcoma: Immunohistochemical Reassessment of 60 t(X;18)(SYT-SSX)-Positive Cases

Diagnosing monophasic fibrous and poorly differentiated synovial sarcoma (SS) on morphology alone is often a source of problems for pathologists. SS bear the t(X;18)(p11.2,q11.2) translocation, which proved to be specific for this tumor type and is currently considered one of the most reliable diagnostic criteria. To evaluate the sensitivity of immunohistochemical techniques in diagnosing monophasic fibrous SS (MFSS) and poorly differentiated SS (PDSS), we examined 60 t(X;18)(SYT-SSX)-positive cases (47 MFSS and 13 PDSS) for cytokeratin AE1/AE3, cytokeratin KL1, epithelial membrane antigen, E-cadherin, CD34, S-100 protein, &agr;-smooth muscle actin, desmin, h-caldesmon, CD99, bcl2, and C-kit (CD117) antibodies. Of the four epithelial markers tested, epithelial membrane antigen proved to be the most sensitive, reacting with 100% of MFSS and 92% of PDSS, followed by cytokeratin AE1/AE3 (70% of MFSS, 46% of PDSS), cytokeratin KL1 (49% of MFSS, 38% of PDSS), and E-cadherin (47% of MFSS, 54% of PDSS). A staining for cytokeratin AE1/AE3 and/or E-cadherin was observed in 79% of MFSS and 69% of PDSS, and a staining for cytokeratin KL1 and/or E-cadherin was observed in 74% of MFSS and 62% of PDSS. S-100 protein was positive in 38% of MFSS and 23% of PDSS, and &agr;-smooth muscle actin in 21% of MFSS and 8% of PDSS. Tumor cells were rarely positive for CD34 (6% of MFSS, 0% of PDSS) and desmin (2% of MFSS, 0% of PDSS). Most SS were strongly positive for bcl-2 (91% of MFSS, 92% of PDSS) and CD99 (91% of MFSS, 100% of PDSS). A weak and focal cytoplasmic reactivity for CD117 was observed in 11% of MFSS (only one case had a strong immunoreactivity) and 8% of PDSS. Staining with h-caldesmon was consistently negative. In conclusion, in keeping with literature data, our results show that reactivity for epithelial membrane antigen, cytokeratin AE1/AE3, and E-cadherin, in combination with CD34 negativity, are the most useful and sensitive markers for diagnosing monophasic fibrous and poorly differentiated t(X;18)-positive SS. They also support the fact that about one third of MFSS and one fourth of PDSS are positive for S-100 protein, a finding of diagnostic relevance when considering their distinction from other spindle to round cell sarcomas, especially malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors.
Glycoprotein B7-H3 overexpression and aberrant glycosylation in oral cancer and immune response

Significance Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is characterized by high morbidity and mortality, and few therapeutic options. Here, we show that the expression of B7 Homolog 3 (B7-H3) is significantly up-regulated in the tumor tissue of OSCC patients and correlated with increased tumor size and poor survival rate. Comparing the N-glycans of B7-H3 from Ca9-22 oral cancer cells and Smulow–Glickman (SG) normal cells, we also found that the glycans of B7-H3 from Ca9-22 contain the terminal α-galactose and are more diverse with higher fucosylation and better interaction with immune cells. These findings indicate that glycoprotein B7-H3 is an important marker in oral cancer and its overexpression and aberrant glycosylation may provide a direction for the development of diagnosis and treatment of oral cancer. The incidence and mortality rate of oral cancer continue to rise, partly due to the lack of effective early diagnosis and increasing environmental exposure to cancer-causing agents. To identify new markers for oral cancer, we used a sialylation probe to investigate the glycoproteins differentially expressed on oral cancer cells. Of the glycoproteins identified, B7 Homolog 3 (B7-H3) was significantly overexpressed in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and its overexpression correlated with larger tumor size, advanced clinical stage, and low survival rate in OSCC patients. In addition, knockdown of B7-H3 suppressed tumor cell proliferation, and restoration of B7-H3 expression enhanced tumor growth. It was also found that the N-glycans of B7-H3 from Ca9-22 oral cancer cells contain the terminal α-galactose and are more diverse with higher fucosylation and better interaction with DC-SIGN [DC-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3 (ICAM-3)–grabbing nonintegrin] and Langerin on immune cells than that from normal cells, suggesting that the glycans on B7-H3 may also play an important role in the disease.
An area efficient asynchronous gated ring oscillator TDC with minimum GRO stages

An 8-bit, 3-stage asynchronous gated ring oscillator (GRO) time-to-digital converter (TDC) is presented. It employs asynchronous techniques to achieve minimum GRO stages. This lead to about 40% to 70% gate count reduction compared to synchronous GRO-TDC. Count-missing, glitch, and unnecessary addition are eliminated. The uncorrupted noise shaping characteristic is obtained. The chip is implemented in a 0.18um CMOS technology. It occupies small area (140μm×310μm) and consumes low power (4mW to 13mW)-
Fault diagnosis and remaining useful life estimation of aero engine using LSTM neural network

Aero engine is a kind of sophisticated and expensive industrial product. Accurate fault location and Remaining Useful Life (RUL) estimation for aero engine can lead to appropriate maintenance actions to avoid catastrophic failures and minimize economic losses. The aim of this paper is to propose utilizing Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network to get good diagnosis and prediction performance in the cases of complicated operations, hybrid faults and strong noises. The whole proposition is demonstrated and discussed by carrying out tests on a health monitoring dataset of aircraft turbofan engines provided by NASA. Performances of LSTM and some of its modifications were tested and contrasted. Experiment results show the standard LSTM outperformed others.
Identification of HLA-A*0201-Restricted T Cell Epitopes Derived from the Novel Overexpressed Tumor Antigen Calcium-Activated Chloride Channel 2

Vaccination against tumor Ags may become a promising treatment modality especially in cancer types where other therapeutic approaches fail. However, diversity of tumors requires that a multitude of Ags become available. Differential expression in normal vs cancerous tissues, both at the mRNA and the protein level, may identify Ag candidates. We have previously compared transcripts from squamous cell lung cancer and normal lung tissue using differential display analysis, and found a transcript that was overexpressed in malignant cells and was identical with the calcium-activated chloride channel 2 (CLCA2) gene. We have now selected HLA-A2-restricted peptides from CLCA2, and have generated T cell lines against the CLCA2-derived KLLGNCLPTV, LLGNCLPTV, and SLQALKVTV peptides using in vitro priming. Specificity of T cells was ascertained in ELISPOT assays. The primed T cells also recognized allogeneic tumor cells in an Ag-specific and HLA-restricted fashion. Moreover, peptide LLGNCLPTV was also independently recognized by CD8+ T cells expanded from pancreatic carcinoma/T cell cocultures. CLCA2-specific CD8+ T cells were absent from the peripheral blood of healthy donors. These data indicate that an immune response can be induced against CLCA2, which thus may become an important Ag for anti-tumor vaccination approaches.
Déjerine‐Sottas syndrome with a silent nucleotide change of myelin protein zero gene

Charcot‐Marie‐Tooth disease type 1B (CMT1B) and Déjerine‐Sottas syndrome type B (DSSB) are caused by missense or frameshift mutations of myelin protein zero (MPZ) gene. We identified an apparently silent synonymous c.411C>T transition in MPZ exon 3 (p.Gly137Gly) which segregated with DSS in a two‐generation pedigree. Retro‐transcriptional analysis of MPZ in the proband's archive sural nerve biopsy identified an r. 410_448del mutant transcript which resulted from an activated cryptic splice site in exon 3 and led to an in‐frame partial deletion of exon 3 (p.Gly137_Lys149del). Quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (QRT‐PCR) compared with two unrelated CMT1B nerves carrying a frameshift c.306delA mutation (p.Asp104ThrfsX13) indicated that the r. 410_448del was stable differing from the p.Asp104ThrfsX13‐associated transcript which was subjected to nonsense‐mediated decay. The report highlighted the possible pathogenic role of synonymous MPZ mutations and difficulties in interpreting results from routine mutational screenings.
Esterification of glycerol with acetic acid for improved production of triacetin using toluene as an entrainer

In the recent years, biodiesel has gained significant attention in Europe and US as clean and sustainable transportation fuel. Glycerol is inevitably produced by 10 wt% in total biodiesel production. Only a part of it is consumed after expensive purification by traditional industries. Thus, the rapid increase in biodiesel production has resulted in a large surplus of low value glycerol in the market. Therefore, intensive efforts are taken to valorize raw glycerol to chemical intermediates, mostly using catalytic processes, such as hydrogenolysis to propanediol, dehydration to acrolein, oxidation to ethylene glycol, acetylation or esterification.
Sensing Cold-Induced Situational Impairments in Mobile Interaction Using Battery Temperature

Previous work has highlighted the detrimental effect of cold ambience on fine-motor skills during interaction with mobile devices. In this work, we develop a method to infer changes in finger temperature of smartphone users without the need for specialised hardware. Specifically, we demonstrate that smartphone battery temperature is a reliable gauge for determining changes to finger temperature. In addition, we show that the behaviour of smartphone battery temperature in cold settings is consistent across different smartphone models and battery configurations. Our method can be used to determine cold-induced situational impairments, and trigger interface adaptations during mobile interaction.
Effect of alcohol on the threshold for detecting angular acceleration.

We investigated the effects of a low blood alcohol level (mean BAC = 0.037%) on subjects' ability to detect acceleration and deceleration of angular motion. The angular motion thresholds of six alcohol and six placebo subjects, all of whom had private pilot certificates, were tested under double-blind conditions in an enclosed simulator apparatus prior to drinking, after drinking, and at a time when the BAC's of alcohol subjects had reached zero. Mean threshold values for the three threshold determination sessions were 0.282, 0.376, and 0.343 degrees.s-2 respectively for the alcohol subjects, and 0.263, 0.262, and 0.262 degrees.s-2 for placebo subjects. A significant alcohol x test-session interaction (p < 0.005) reflected the elevated thresholds shown by all alcohol subjects after consuming alcohol (p < 0.001). Of the six alcohol subjects, four continued to have elevated thresholds after their BAC's reached zero (p < 0.001). Alcohol and placebo subjects showed similar performance on the ancillary tasks of maintaining altitude and reporting a specified number when it appeared on a digital display. Both groups also reported that they had experienced similar levels of discomfort symptoms before and after drinking. The results indicate that a pilot's ability to detect angular motion can be compromised by low BAC levels, and this effect may continue for some pilots after their BAC reaches zero.
Sensitivity of billing claims for cardiovascular disease events among kidney transplant recipients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Billing claims are increasingly examined beyond administrative functions as outcomes measures in observational research. Few studies have described the performance of billing claims as surrogate measures of clinical events among kidney transplant recipients. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS We investigated the sensitivity of Medicare billing claims for clinically verified cardiovascular diagnoses (five categories) and procedures (four categories) in a novel database linking Medicare claims to electronic medical records of one transplant program. Cardiovascular events identified in medical records for 571 Medicare-insured transplant recipients in 1991 through 2002 served as reference measures. RESULTS Within a claims-ascertainment period spanning +/-30 d of clinically recorded dates, aggregate sensitivity of single claims was higher for case definitions incorporating Medicare Parts A and B for diagnoses and procedures (90.9%) compared with either Part A (82.3%) or Part B (84.6%) alone. Perfect capture of the four procedures was possible within +/-30 d or with short claims window expansion, but sensitivity for the diagnoses trended lower with all study algorithms (91.2% with window up to +/-90 d). Requirement for additional confirmatory diagnosis claims did not appreciably reduce sensitivity. Sensitivity patterns were similar in the early compared with late periods of the study. CONCLUSIONS Combined use of Medicare Parts A and B billing claims composes a sensitive measure of cardiovascular events after kidney transplant. Further research is needed to define algorithms that maximize specificity as well as sensitivity of claims from Medicare and other insurers as research measures in this population.
Evaluación de la aplicación del ensayo UMELISA HIV 1+2 RECOMBINANT en muestras de sangre seca sobre papel de filtro S & S 903

El comportamiento de muestras de sangre seca sobre papel de filtro S & S 903 (PF S & S 903) comparado con muestras de suero humano en el ensayo UMELISA HIV 1+2 RECOMBINANT, se estudiaron 318 muestras procedentes de donantes del banco de sangre supuestamente sanos. Se obtuvo como resultado 315 muestras negativas, dos muestras borderline y una muestra positiva. Una vez realizado el DAVIH-BLOT, se confirmo como positiva la muestra positiva obtenida por UMELISA y como negativa e indeterminada las muestras borderline. Con esto se obtuvo un 99.68% de especificidad. Con este mismo fin se estudiaron 233 muestras positivas en SH y PF S & S 903 a 45 y 55% de hematocrito, las cuales mantuvieron los mismos niveles de positividad por ambos metodos. Se obtuvo 100% de sensibilidad para ambos valores de hematocrito.
THE ANT (HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE) FAUNA OF COCOS ISLAND, COSTA RICA

Abstract Cocos Island, Costa Rica is a 24-square kilometer volcanic island in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, located approximately 480 kilometers from the mainland. Despite its biogeographic significance, much of the entomofauna have not been systematically surveyed. A detailed survey of the ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) fauna of this island was conducted over a three-week period. The results suggest that, despite the relatively minor presence of humans on Cocos, much of the ant fauna is dominated by non-native species. Furthermore, the current ant community is substantially different from that described by previous expeditions. One of the previously described endemics, Camponotus biolleyi Forel, was not found during the survey. A species known to be invasive, Wasmannia auropunctata Roger, was found in extremely high abundance near disturbed sites, but was not present in more pristine habitats. Furthermore, this population displays intraspecific aggression, which is uncommon among invasive ants, including other invasive populations of this species.
The Future of Competition Value-Creating Networks Prabakar Kothandaraman

In buyer–seller relationships, the focus has moved beyond individual firms to value-creating networks formed by key firms in the value chain that deliver value to the end consumer. The article develops a rationale for value-creating networks using three core building blocks: superior customer value, core competencies, and relationships. The rationale is developed based upon an understanding of the value-creation process and its links to core capabilities of firms in the network. The importance of inter-firm relationships in realizing the true potential of the value-creation networks is also highlighted. The authors argue based on their sample analysis of some examples that competition in the future will shift to the network level from the firm level. The influence of some emerging business tools such as electronic commerce on redefining value creation is also discussed. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
Familial Mutations and Post-translational Modifications of UCH-L1 in Parkinson’s Disease and Neurodegenerative Disorders

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common progressive neurodegenerative disorders in modern society. The disease involves many genetic risk factors as well as a sporadic pathogenesis that is age- and environment-dependent. Of particular interest is the formation of intra-neural fibrillar aggregates, namely Lewy bodies (LBs), the histological hallmark of PD, which results from aberrant protein homeostasis or misfolding that results in neurotoxicity. A better understanding of the molecular mechanism and composition of these cellular inclusions will help shed light on the progression of misfolding-associated neurodegenerative disorders. Ubiquitin carbonyl-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) is found to co-aggregate with α-synuclein (αS), the major component of LBs. Several familial mutations of UCH-L1, namely p.Ile93Met (p.I93M), p.Glu7Ala (p.E7A), and p.Ser18Tyr (p.S18Y), are associated with PD and other neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we review recent progress and recapitulate the impact of PD-associated mutations of UCH-L1 in the context of their biological functions gleaned from biochemical and biophysical studies. Finally, we summarize the effect of these genetic mutations and post-translational modifications on the association of UCH-L1 and PD in terms of loss of cellular functions or gain of cellular toxicity.
Power Consumption in Handheld Computers

While the computing requirements of mobile battery-powered systems in general are increasing, it is clear that advances in battery technology have not kept pace with the ever increasing energy demands of these devices. Researchers are exploring architectural, hardware, software and system level optimization techniques to minimize the overall energy consumption of these computers. An analysis of the power consumption behavior of these devices when running representative workloads will provide a critical and a needed insight that will assist designers in developing low power future generations devices. In this work, and in order to get a better understanding of the factors that affect power consumption in pocket PCs, a series of experiments were performed on pocket computers while being subjected to a variety of operational scenarios. Based on the analysis and observations made from these measurements we were able to relate the consumption behavior of the computer to some of its operational parameters
Modeling and control of a wind turbine driven doubly fed induction generator

This paper presents the simulation results of a grid-connected wind driven doubly fed induction machine (DFIM) together with some real machine performance results. The modeling of the machine considers operating conditions below and above synchronous speed, which are actually achieved by means of a double-sided PWM converter joining the machine rotor to the grid. In order to decouple the active and reactive powers generated by the machine, stator-flux-oriented vector control is applied. The wind generator mathematical model developed in this paper is used to show how such a control strategy offers the possibility of controlling the power factor of the energy to be generated.