Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aqueous Binder Enhanced High-Performance GeP5 Anode for Lithium-Ion Batteries

GeP5 is a recently reported new anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs), it holds a large theoretical capacity about 2300 mAh g−1, and a high rate capability due to its bi-active components and superior conductivity. However, it undergoes a large volume change during its electrochemical alloying and de-alloying with Li, a suitable binder is necessary to stable the electrode integrity for improving cycle performance. In this work, we tried to apply aqueous binders LiPAA and NaCMC to GeP5 anode, and compared the difference in electrochemical performance between them and traditional binder PVDF. As can be seen from the test result, GeP5 can keep stable in both common organic solvents and proton solvents such as water and alcohol solvents, it meets the application requirements of aqueous binders. The electrochemistry results show that the use of LiPAA binder can significantly improve the initial Coulombic efficiency, reversible capacity, and cyclability of GeP5 anode as compared to the electrodes based on NaCMC and PVDF binders. The enhanced electrochemical performance of GeP5 electrode with LiPAA binder can be ascribed to the unique high strength long chain polymer structure of LiPAA, which also provide numerous uniform distributed carboxyl groups to form strong ester groups with active materials and copper current collector. Benefit from that, the GeP5 electrode with LiPAA can also exhibit excellent rate capability, and even at low temperature, it still shows attractive electrochemical performance.
Health risk assessment and source study of PAHs from roadside soil dust of a heavy mining area in India

ABSTRACT The total concentrations of 13 detected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in different traffic soil samples of Dhanbad heavy mining area, India, were between 8.256 and 12.562 µg/g and were dominated by four ring PAHs (44%). Diagnostic ratio study revealed that fossil fuel burning and vehicular pollution are the most prominent sources of the PAHs in roadside soil even at a heavy coal mining area. The 90th percentiles cancer risks determined by probabilistic health risk assessment (Monte Carlo simulations) for both the age groups (children and adults) were above tolerable limit (>1.00E-06) according to USEPA. The simulated mean cancer risk was 1.854E-05 for children and 1.823E-05 for adults. For different exposure pathways, dermal contact was observed to be the major pathway with an exposure load of 74% for children and 85% for adults. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated relative skin adherence factor for soil (AF) is the most influential parameter of the simulation, followed by exposure duration (ED).
The distribution of neutral hydrogen around high-redshift galaxies and quasars in the EAGLE simulation

The observed high covering fractions of neutral hydrogen (HIHI) with column densities above ∼1017 cm−2 around Lyman-Break Galaxies (LBGs) and bright quasars at redshifts z ∼ 2–3 has been identified as a challenge for simulations of galaxy formation. We use the Evolution and Assembly of Galaxies and their Environment (EAGLE) cosmological, hydrodynamical simulation, which has been shown to reproduce a wide range of galaxy properties and for which the subgrid feedback was calibrated without considering gas properties, to study the distribution of HIHI around high-redshift galaxies. We predict the covering fractions of strong HIHI absorbers (NHI≳1017cm−2NHI≳1017cm−2) inside haloes to increase rapidly with redshift but to depend only weakly on halo mass. For massive (M200 ≳ 1012M⊙) haloes, the covering fraction profiles are nearly scale-invariant and we provide fitting functions that reproduce the simulation results. While efficient feedback is required to increase the HIHI covering fractions to the high observed values, the distribution of strong absorbers in and around haloes of a fixed mass is insensitive to factor of 2 variations in the strength of the stellar feedback. In contrast, at fixed stellar mass the predicted HIHI distribution is highly sensitive to the feedback efficiency. The fiducial EAGLE simulation reproduces both the observed global column density distribution function of HIHI and the observed radial covering fraction profiles of strong HIHI absorbers around LBGs and bright quasars.
Online Recognition of Daily Activities by Color-Depth Sensing and Knowledge Models

Visual activity recognition plays a fundamental role in several research fields as a way to extract semantic meaning of images and videos. Prior work has mostly focused on classification tasks, where a label is given for a video clip. However, real life scenarios require a method to browse a continuous video flow, automatically identify relevant temporal segments and classify them accordingly to target activities. This paper proposes a knowledge-driven event recognition framework to address this problem. The novelty of the method lies in the combination of a constraint-based ontology language for event modeling with robust algorithms to detect, track and re-identify people using color-depth sensing (Kinect® sensor). This combination enables to model and recognize longer and more complex events and to incorporate domain knowledge and 3D information into the same models. Moreover, the ontology-driven approach enables human understanding of system decisions and facilitates knowledge transfer across different scenes. The proposed framework is evaluated with real-world recordings of seniors carrying out unscripted, daily activities at hospital observation rooms and nursing homes. Results demonstrated that the proposed framework outperforms state-of-the-art methods in a variety of activities and datasets, and it is robust to variable and low-frame rate recordings. Further work will investigate how to extend the proposed framework with uncertainty management techniques to handle strong occlusion and ambiguous semantics, and how to exploit it to further support medicine on the timely diagnosis of cognitive disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
The Methodology for Evaluating Response Cost for Intrusion Response Systems

Recent advances in the field of intrusion detection brought new requirements to intrusion prevention and response. Traditionally, the response to the detected attack was selected and deployed manually, in the recent years the focus has shifted towards developing automated and semi-automated methodologies for responding to intrusions. In this context, the cost-sensitive intrusion response models have gained the most interest mainly due to their emphasis on the balance between potential damage incurred by the intrusion and cost of the response. However, one of the challenges in applying this approach is defining consistent and adaptable measurement of these cost factors on the basis of requirements and policy of the system being protected against intrusions. In this paper we present a structured methodology for evaluating cost of responses based on three factors: the response operational cost associated with the daily maintenance of the response, the response goodness that measures the applicability of the selected response for a detected intrusion and the response impact on the system that refers to the possible response effect on the system functionality. The proposed approach provides consistent basis for response evaluation across different systems while incorporating security policy and properties of specific system environment. We demonstrate the advantages of the proposed cost model and evaluate it on the example of three systems.
Potential role of salt‐bridges in the hinge‐like movement of apicomplexa specific β‐hairpin of Plasmodium and Toxoplasma profilins: A molecular dynamics simulation study

Profilin is one of the actin‐binding proteins that regulate dynamics of actin polymerization. It plays a key role in cell motility and invasion. It also interacts with several other proteins notably through its poly‐L‐proline (PLP) binding site. Profilin in apicomplexa is characterized by a unique mini‐domain consisting of a large β‐hairpin extension and an acidic loop which is relatively longer in Plasmodium species. Profilin is essential for the invasive blood stages of Plasmodium falciparum. In the current study, unbound profilins from Plasmodium falciparum (Pf), Toxoplasma gondii (Tg), and Homo sapiens (Hs) were subjected to molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for a timeframe of 100 ns each to understand the conformational dynamics of these proteins. It was found that the β‐hairpin of profilins from Pf and Tg shows a hinge‐like movement. This movement in Pf profilin may possibly be driven by the loss of a salt‐bridge within profilin. The impact of this conformational change on actin binding was assessed by docking three dimensional (3D) structures of profilin from Pf and Tg with their corresponding actins using ClusPro2.0. The stability of docked Pf profilin‐actin complex was assessed through a 50 ns MD simulation. As Hs profilin I does not have the apicomplexa specific mini‐domain, MD simulation was performed for this protein and its dynamics was compared to that of profilins from Pf and Tg. Using an immunoinformatics approach, potential epitope regions were predicted for Pf profilin. This has a potential application in the design of vaccines as they mapped to its unique mini‐domain.
Akt isoform specific effects in ovarian cancer progression

Ovarian cancer remains a significant therapeutic problem and novel, effective therapies are needed. Akt is a serine-threonine kinase that is overexpressed in numerous cancers, including ovarian. Mammalian cells express three Akt isoforms which are encoded by distinct genes. Although there are several Akt inhibitors in clinical trials, most indiscriminately target all isoforms. Current in vitro data and animal knockout experiments suggest that the Akt isoforms may have divergent roles. In this paper, we determined the isoform-specific functions of Akt in ovarian cancer cell proliferation in vitro and in ovarian cancer progression in vivo. For in vitro experiments, murine and human ovarian cancer cells were treated with Akt inhibitors and cell viability was assessed. We used two different in vivo approaches to identify the roles of Akt isoforms in ovarian cancer progression and their influence on the primary tumor and tumor microenvironment. In one experiment, wild-type C57Bl6 mice were orthotopically injected with ID8 cells with stable knockdown of Akt isoforms. In a separate experiment, mice null for Akt 1-3 were orthotopically injected with WT ID8 cells (Figure 1). Our data show that inhibition of Akt1 significantly reduced ovarian cancer cell proliferation and inhibited tumor progression in vivo. Conversely, disruption of Akt2 increased tumor growth. Inhibition of Akt3 had an intermediate phenotype, but also increased growth of ovarian cancer cells. These data suggest that there is minimal redundancy between the Akt isoforms in ovarian cancer progression. These findings have important implications in the design of Akt inhibitors for the effective treatment of ovarian cancer.
Switchable fiber optic laser system for high and low-strain fiber optic sensors remote multiplexing

In this paper, a 50 Km remote and switchable fiber optic sensing system based on an erbium doped fiber ring laser is proposed. The system allows the integration of different interrogation methods based on the detection of wavelength or amplitude variations of the laser. This integration is carried out by sequentially activating different ring cavities by using an optical switch. With this scheme, the maximum gain zone of the erbium doped fiber amplifier can be used to increase the distance of the sensor system. A bending intensity sensor and a FBG based strain sensor were successfully tested for high and low-strain measurements respectively. This system includes all the active elements inside the monitoring station, enabling the remote monitoring of the sensors.
MDANSE: An Interactive Analysis Environment for Molecular Dynamics Simulations

The MDANSE software-Molecular Dynamics Analysis of Neutron Scattering Experiments-is presented. It is an interactive application for postprocessing molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Given the widespread use of MD simulations in material and biomolecular sciences to get a better insight for experimental techniques such as thermal neutron scattering (TNS), the development of MDANSE has focused on providing a user-friendly, interactive, graphical user interface for analyzing many trajectories in the same session and running several analyses simultaneously independently of the interface. This first version of MDANSE already proposes a broad range of analyses, and the application has been designed to facilitate the introduction of new analyses in the framework. All this makes MDANSE a valuable tool for extracting useful information from trajectories resulting from a wide range of MD codes.
Acquiring NLP Data by means of Games

For some of the NLP tasks, obtaining appropriate data is very difficult. In this paper we concentrate on acquiring NLP data by means of games. Two different projects are presented and various aspects of these games are discussed. First, we discuss public-made collections of linguistic data generally: the quality and reliability of contributors and collections, and the high dependence of number of contributions on motivation and contribution policy. Second, we describe creation of games for acquiring NLP data in detail. As example, two existing games are presented. Finally, evaluation techniques for both projects are discussed.
The Tasmanian atrial fibrillation study: Transition to direct oral anticoagulants 2011‐2015

INTRODUCTION Contemporary Australian data regarding antithrombotic prescribing patterns following approval of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are limited. AIM The aim of this study was to assess antithrombotic prescribing patterns before, during, and after the clinical introduction of DOACs. METHODS Using digital medical records, this retrospective cohort study included all patients with AF as a primary or secondary diagnosis who were admitted to the Royal Hobart Hospital, Tasmania, Australia, between January 2011 and July 2015. RESULTS Antithrombotic agents were prescribed for 2078 (91.9%) of 2261 patients without documented contraindication to therapy. Higher rates of OAC prescribing were observed following government subsidization of DOACs in Quarter 3 (Q3) 2013 than anticoagulation rates in the prior quarters (54.4% in Q3, 2013, to 68.1% in Q2, 2015, P<.001), with the prescribing of warfarin and antiplatelet agents declining. DOACs, as a class, accounted for 18.4% of patients on antithrombotic therapy in 2011-2015; the proportion of patients receiving a DOAC steadily increased from 3.9% among OAC users in Q3, 2011, to 67.6% in Q2, 2015 (P<.001). In a subset of patients with newly diagnosed AF, patients commenced on DOACs were younger (70.4 vs 73.8 years, P=.04) and had lower stroke and bleeding risk scores (CHA2DS2-VASc 2.8 vs 3.3, P=.03, HAS-BLED 2 vs 3, P=.04) than patients who were newly prescribed warfarin. CONCLUSIONS Direct oral anticoagulants rapidly became the most commonly prescribed class of antithrombotic medications in patients with AF soon after they became widely available. Warfarin and antiplatelet prescribing declined significantly, although a substantial proportion of patients continued to be prescribed antiplatelet therapy. Patients who were initiated on DOACs were typically younger with fewer comorbid conditions compared with those initiated on warfarin therapy.
Childhood Trauma, Combat Trauma, and Substance Use in National Guard and Reserve Soldiers

Background: The goal of this work was to examine associations among childhood trauma, combat trauma, and substance use (alcohol problems, frequent heavy drinking [FHD], current cigarette smoking, and current/lifetime drug use) and the interaction effects of childhood trauma and combat exposure on those associations among National Guard/reserve soldiers. Methods: Participants (N = 248) completed an electronic survey asking questions about their military experiences, physical and mental health, and substance use. Childhood trauma and combat exposure were examined jointly in regression models, controlling for age, marital satisfaction, and number of deployments. Results: Childhood trauma was associated with current drug use (trend level, odds ratio [OR] = 1.44, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.97, 2.14; P = .072) in the main effect model; however, there was not a significant interaction with combat. Combat exposure had a significant interaction with childhood trauma on alcohol problems (b = −0.56, 95% CI: −1.12, −0.01; P = .048), FHD (b = −0.27, 95% CI: −0.47, −0.08; P = .007), and lifetime drug use (OR = 1.78, 95% CI: 1.04, 3.04; P = .035). There were no associations with either of the trauma measures and current cigarette smoking. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that childhood and combat trauma have differential effects on alcohol use, such that combat trauma may not add to the effect on alcohol use in those with greater child maltreatment but may contribute to greater alcohol use among those with low child maltreatment. As expected, childhood and combat trauma had synergistic effects on lifetime drug use. Screening for multiple types of trauma prior to enlistment and/or deployment may help to identify at-risk individuals and allow time for early intervention to prevent future adverse outcomes.
An overview of the SAND Spatial Database System

An overview is given of the SAND spatial database system, an environment for developing applications involving both spatial and non-spatial data. The SAND kernel implements a relational data model extended with several geometric functions and predicates as well as a spatial index. The main interface to SAND is through an embedded interpreted language. This permits the rapid prototyping of algorithms and makes SAND a useful tool both for applications and research. A graphical user interface that allows for easy database querying, and a client/server approach that simplifies remote access are also outlined. This work was supported in part by the National ScienceFoundation under Grants EIA-99-00268, IIS-00-86162, EIA-00-91474, and IRI-97-12715. †Author’s current address: COPPE, Programa de Engenhariade Sistemas e Computação, UniversidadeFederal do Rio de Janeiro, Ilha do Fundão, CT, Bloco H, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21949-900, Brazil. ‡Current address: RightOrder, Inc., 3850 N. First Street, San Jose, CA 95134.
Exploring the Self-Ownership Effect: Separating Stimulus and Response Biases

Although ownership is acknowledged to exert a potent influence on various aspects of information processing, the origin of these effects remains largely unknown. Based on the demonstration that self-relevance facilitates perceptual judgments (i.e., the self-prioritization effect), here we explored the possibility that ownership enhances object categorization. The results of 2 experiments supported this prediction. Compared with items owned by a stranger (Expt. 1) or best friend (Expt. 2), those owned by the self were classified most rapidly (i.e., self-ownership effect) in an object-categorization task. To establish the basis of this effect, the processes underlying task performance were interrogated using a hierarchical drift diffusion model (HDDM) approach. Results of these analyses revealed that self-ownership was underpinned by a response bias (i.e., starting point of evidence accumulation). These findings explicate the origin of the ownership effect during object processing.
Percutaneous Transpedicular Vertebroplasty versus Conservative Management in Osteoporotic Vertebral Fractures

Osteoporotic vertebral fractures can lead to late collapse which often cause kyphotic spinal deformity, persistent back pain, decreased lung capacity, increased fracture risk and increased mortality. The purpose of our study is to compare the efficacy and safety of vertebroplasty against conservative management of osteoporotic vertebral fractures without neurologic symptoms. A total of 66 patients with recent OVF on MRI examination were included in the study. All patients were admitted from September 2009 to September 2012. The cohort was divided in two groups: first study group consisted of 33 prospectively followed consecutive patients who suffered 40 vertebral osteoporotic fractures treated by percutaneous vertebroplasty (Group 1), and the control group consisted of 33 patients who suffered 41 vertebral osteoporotic fractures treated conservatory because they reffused vertebroplasty (Group 2). Vertebroplasty with PMMA was performed in 30 patients on 39 VBs, including four thoracic vertebras, 27 vertebras of the thoracolumbar jonction and 8 lumbar vertebras. In the Group 2 were included 30 patients with 39 OVFs (four thoracic vertebras, 23 vertebras of the thoracolumbar junction and 11 lumbar vertebras). In our study on OVF, vertebroplasty delivered superior clinical and radiological outcomes over the first year from intervention when compared to consevative treatment of patients with osteoporotic compression fractures without neurological deficit.
Voltage Balancing Method for a Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converter Using Phase Disposition PWM

This paper proposes a voltage balancing method for a flying capacitor multilevel converter based on the phase-disposition sinusoidal pulsewidth modulation (PD-SPWM). This voltage balancing method uses redundant switching states, which are determined by the minimization of a cost function. The implementation of the PD-SPWM using standard triangular carriers leads to additional switching events that are due to the transitions within the same voltage level, thus increasing the switching frequency of the power devices. Such drawback can be avoided by using sawtooth carrier waveforms. Another characteristic of the proposed voltage balancing method is that it does not require the tuning of parameters to achieve optimal performance. Simulation and experimental results confirm the robustness of the proposed method operating with different loads and transient conditions.