Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tool wear and surface quality of metal matrix composites due to machining: A review

Higher tool wear and inferior surface quality of the specimens during machining restrict metal matrix composites’ application in many areas in spite of their excellent properties. The researches in this field are not well organized, and knowledge is not properly linked to give a complete overview. Thus, it is hard to implement it in practical fields. To address this issue, this article reviews tool wear and surface generation and latest developments in machining of metal matrix composites. This will provide an insight and scientific overview in this field which will facilitate the implementation of the obtained knowledge in the practical fields. It was noted that the hard reinforcements initially start abrasive wear on the cutting tool. The abrasion exposes new cutting tool surface, which initiates adhesion of matrix material to the cutting tool and thus causes adhesion wear. Built-up edges also generate at lower cutting speeds. Although different types of coating improve tool life, only diamond cutting tools show considerably longer tool life. The application of the coolants improves tool life reasonably at higher cutting speed. Pits, voids, microcracks and fractured reinforcements are common in the machined metal matrix composite surface. These are due to ploughing, indentation and dislodgement of particles from the matrix due to tool–particle interactions. Furthermore, compressive residual stress is caused by the particles’ indentation in the machined surface. At high feeds, the feed rate controls the surface roughness of the metal matrix composite; although at low feeds, it was controlled by the particle fracture or pull out. The coarser reinforced particles and lower volume fraction enhance microhardness variations beneath the machined surface.
Two Applications of Concept Refinement

We describe two applications of refinement operators that can generalise and specialise concepts expressed in the ALC description logic language. The first application addresses the problem of analysing the joint coherence of some given concepts w.r. t. a background ontology. To this end, we apply Thagard’s computational theory of coherence, in combination with semantic similarity between concepts defined by means of the generalisation operator. The second application focuses on repairing an inconsistent collective ontology that may result from the vote on axioms of multiple experts based on principles from social choice theory and judgment aggregation. We use the refinement operators, together with a reference ontology, to weaken some axioms and to repair the collective ontology.
Atomic Layer Deposition of AlF3 Thin Films Using Halide Precursors

Aluminum fluoride thin films have potential in both optic and lithium-ion battery applications. AlF3 thin films have mostly been deposited using physical vapor deposition methods. In this study, we present a new atomic layer deposition process for AlF3. Our method makes use of a halide–halide exchange reaction with AlCl3 and TiF4 as the precursors. With this new chemistry, thin films of AlF3 can be deposited at a temperature range of 160–340 °C. The films have been studied by UV–vis spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray reflectance, atomic force microscopy, time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis (ToF-ERDA), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. At 220 °C, the growth rate of the films is approximately 1.1 A per cycle, and the refractive index is 1.36 (at 580 nm). The films show only small amounts of Cl and Ti impurities when deposited at high temperatures, as determined by ToF-ERDA. Surface oxidation of the films .
Synthesis of Logical Clifford Operators via Symplectic Geometry

Quantum error-correcting codes can be used to protect qubits involved in quantum computation. This requires that logical operators acting on protected qubits be translated to physical operators (circuits) acting on physical quantum states. We propose a mathematical framework for synthesizing physical circuits that implement logical Clifford operators for stabilizer codes. Circuit synthesis is enabled by representing the desired physical Clifford operator in $\mathbb{C}^{N\times N}$ as a $2m\times 2m$ binary sym-plectic matrix, where $N=2^{m}$. We show that for an $\! \! \! \! [\! \! \! [\ {m, m-k}\ ]\! \! \! ]\! \! \! \! $ stabilizer code every logical Clifford operator has $2^{k(k+1)/2}$ symplectic solutions, and we enumerate them efficiently using symplectic transvections. The desired circuits are then obtained by writing each of the solutions as a product of elementary symplectic matrices. For a given operator, our assembly of all of its physical realizations enables optimization over them with respect to a suitable metric. Our method of circuit synthesis can be applied to any stabilizer code, and this paper provides a proof of concept synthesis of universal Clifford gates for the well-known $\! \! \! \! [\! \! \! [\ 6,4,2\ ]\! \! \! ]\! \! \! \! $ code. Programs implementing our algorithms can be found at https://github.com/nrenga/symplectic-arxiv18a.
Molecular Understanding of the Activation of CB1 and Blockade of TRPV1 Receptors: Implications for Novel Treatment Strategies in Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a joint disease in which cartilage degenerates as a result of mechanical and biochemical changes. The main OA symptom is chronic pain involving both peripheral and central mechanisms of nociceptive processing. Our previous studies have implicated the benefits of dual- over single-acting compounds interacting with the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in OA treatment. In the present study, we focused on the specific molecular alterations associated with pharmacological treatment. OA was induced in Wistar rats by intra-articular injection of 3 mg of monoiodoacetate (MIA). Single target compounds (URB597, an FAAH inhibitor, and SB366791, a TRPV1 antagonist) and a dual-acting compound OMDM198 (FAAH inhibitor/TRPV1 antagonist) were used in the present study. At day 21 post-MIA injection, rats were sacrificed 1 h after i.p. treatment, and changes in mRNA expression were evaluated in the lumbar spinal cord by RT-qPCR. Following MIA administration, we observed 2-4-fold increase in mRNA expression of targeted receptors (Cnr1, Cnr2, and Trpv1), endocannabinoid degradation enzymes (Faah, Ptgs2, and Alox12), and TRPV1 sensitizing kinases (Mapk3, Mapk14, Prkcg, and Prkaca). OMDM198 treatment reversed some of the MIA effects on the spinal cord towards intact levels (Alox12, Mapk14, and Prkcg). Apparent regulation of ECS and TRPV1 in response to pharmacological intervention is a strong justification for novel ECS-based multi-target drug treatment in OA.
Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for renal fatigue (BReF): a feasibility randomised-controlled trial of CBT for the management of fatigue in haemodialysis (HD) patients

Introduction Fatigue is one of the most common and disabling symptoms in end-stage kidney disease, particularly among in-centre haemodialysis patients. This two-arm parallel group feasibility randomised controlled trial will determine whether a fully powered efficacy trial is achievable by examining the feasibility of recruitment, acceptability and potential benefits of a cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT)-based intervention for fatigue among in-centre haemodialysis patients. Methods We aim to recruit 40 adult patients undergoing in-centre haemodialysis at secondary care outpatient dialysis units, who meet clinical levels of fatigue. Patients will be randomised individually (using a 1:1 ratio) to either a 4–6 weeks’ CBT-based intervention (intervention arm) or to a waiting-list control (control arm). The primary feasibility outcomes include descriptive data on numbers within each recruiting centre meeting eligibility criteria, rates of recruitment, numbers retained postrandomisation and treatment adherence. To assess the potential benefits of the cognitive-behavioural therapy for renal fatigue intervention, secondary self-report outcomes include measures of fatigue severity (Chalder Fatigue Questionnaire), fatigue-related functional impairment (Work and Social Adjustment Scale), sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) and anxiety (Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7). Changes in fatigue perceptions (Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire), cognitive and behavioural responses to fatigue (Cognitive and Behavioural Responses to Symptoms Questionnaire), sleep hygiene behaviours (Sleep Hygiene Index) and physical activity (International Physical Activity Questionnaire–short form) will also be explored. These self-report measures will be collected at baseline and 3 months postrandomisation. Nested qualitative interviews will be conducted postintervention to explore the acceptability of the intervention and identify any areas in need of improvement. The statistician and assessor will be blinded to treatment allocation. Ethics and dissemination A National Health Service (NHS) Research Ethics Committee approved the study. Any amendments to the protocol will be submitted to the NHS Committee and study sponsor. Trial registration number ISRCTN91238019;Pre-results.
Deletion of the cell wall peptidoglycan hydrolase gene cwlO or lytE severely impairs transformation efficiency in Bacillus subtilis.

None of the authors of this manuscript has any financial or personal relationship with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence their work. aimed to investigate whether deletion of various peptidoglycan hydrolase genes had any effect on competence development in B. subtilis. The bacterial strains and plasmids used in this study are listed in Table 1. The oligonucleotide primers are listed in Table 2. Escherichia coli DH5a was used as a host for cloning purposes. To determine the transformation efficiency, various B. subtilis cells were first grown at 37∞C in the absence of any antibiotic as described by Contente and Dubnau (1979) for the preparation of competent cells. The period of starvation for competence development was usually 60 min unless otherwise specified. One milliliter of competent cells were then incubated at 37∞C with the shuttle plasmid pHY300PLK (final concentration: 3.7 ng ml–1) for 1 h, and were subjected to serial dilution and plating on Luria-Bertani (LB) agar plates (containing 10 g l–1 tryptone, 5 g l–1 yeast extract, 5 g l–1 NaCl, and 15 g l–1 agar) supplemented with or without tetracycline (10 mg ml–1). Transformation efficiency was expressed as the percentage of Tcr transformants of the total viable count. The results showed that deletion of the peptidoglycan hydrolase gene cwlO or lytE severely impaired plasmid DNA transformation efficiency (Table 3). In contrast, deletion of cwlS, lytC, lytD, or lytF had no apparent effect on competence development (Table 3). To perform complementation experiments, we constructed the pDL (Yuan and Wong, 1995)-based integrative plasmid pGS2749 (Table 1), which carries an intact cwlO gene expressed from its native promoter (amplified by PCR with the primer pair B419 plus B420), and utilized the pDL-based integrative plasmid pENB14 (Tseng et al., 2011), which carries an intact lytE gene expressed from its native promoter. These two plasmid constructs were then individually introduced into competent cells of Deletion of the cell wall peptidoglycan hydrolase gene cwlO or lytE severely impairs transformation efficiency in Bacillus subtilis
The Influence of Pre-Exercise Glucose versus Fructose Ingestion on Subsequent Postprandial Lipemia

Ingestion of low glycemic index (LGI) carbohydrate (CHO) before exercise induced less insulin response and higher fat oxidation than that of high GI (HGI) CHO during subsequent exercise. However, the effect on the subsequent postprandial lipid profile is still unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate ingestion of CHO drinks with different GI using fructose and glucose before endurance exercise on the subsequent postprandial lipid profile. Eight healthy active males completed two experimental trials in randomized double-blind cross-over design. All participants ingested 500 mL CHO (75 g) solution either fructose (F) or glucose (G) before running on the treadmill at 60% VO2max for 1 h. Participants were asked to take an oral fat tolerance test (OFTT) immediately after the exercise. Blood samples were obtained for plasma and serum analysis. The F trial was significantly lower than the G trial in TG total area under the curve (AUC; 9.97 ± 3.64 vs. 10.91 ± 3.56 mmol × 6 h/L; p = 0.033) and incremental AUC (6.57 ± 2.46 vs. 7.14 ± 2.64 mmol/L × 6 h, p = 0.004). The current data suggested that a pre-exercise fructose drink showed a lower postprandial lipemia than a glucose drink after the subsequent high-fat meal.
Increased haemolymph osmolality suggests a new route for behavioural manipulation of Talorchestia quoyana (Amphipoda: Talitridae) by its mermithid parasite

Summary 1. Hairworms (phylum Nematomorpha) and mermithid nematodes (phylum Nematoda) have independently evolved almost identical life cycles: both parasites cause their terrestrial arthropod hosts to seek water, required for their aquatic free-living adult stage. Hairworms achieve this by altering host neurotransmitters, but the mechanisms used by mermithids remain unknown. 2. The physiological effects of the mermithid nematode Thaumamermis zealandica on its host, the supralittoral talitrid amphipod Talorchestia quoyana, are investigated. The parasite develops in the haemocoel, and induces the host to burrow more deeply than healthy amphipods and the adult T. zelandica emerges from the host into moist sand at these greater depths. 3. Parasitized amphipods had higher haemolymph osmolality than unparasitized amphipods. There was no difference in haemolymph Na + , K + or Mg 2+ concentrations between parasitized and unparasitized amphipods. 4. Water content did not differ between parasitized and unparasitized amphipods. Lipid reserves were lower in parasitized male amphipods than in unparasitized males; there was no difference among females. 5. Increase of host haemolymph osmolality by T. zealandica could induce ‘thirst’, explaining why parasitized amphipods seek water-saturated sand. This mechanism appears more parsimonious than that used by nematomorphs to achieve the same change in host behaviour.
Serotonergic Dysfunction in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Parkinson's Disease: Similar Mechanisms, Dissimilar Outcomes

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's disease (PD) share similar pathophysiological mechanisms. From a neurochemical point of view, the serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) dysfunction in both movement disorders—related to probable lesioning of the raphe nuclei—is profound, and, therefore, may be partially responsible for motor as well as non-motor disturbances. More specifically, in ALS, it has been hypothesized that serotonergic denervation leads to loss of its inhibitory control on glutamate release, resulting into glutamate-induced neurotoxicity in lower and/or upper motor neurons, combined with a detrimental decrease of its facilitatory effects on glutamatergic motor neuron excitation. Both events then may eventually give rise to the well-known clinical motor phenotype. Similarly, disruption of the organized serotonergic control on complex mesencephalic dopaminergic connections between basal ganglia (BG) nuclei and across the BG-cortico-thalamic circuits, has shown to be closely involved in the onset of parkinsonian symptoms. Levodopa (L-DOPA) therapy in PD largely seems to confirm the influential role of 5-HT, since serotonergic rather than dopaminergic projections release L-DOPA-derived dopamine, particularly in extrastriatal regions, emphasizing the strongly interwoven interactions between both monoamine systems. Apart from its orchestrating function, the 5-HT system also exerts neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects. In line with this observation, emerging therapies have recently focused on boosting the serotonergic system in ALS and PD, which may provide novel rationale for treating these devastating conditions both on the disease-modifying, as well as symptomatic level.
Modellierung und Simulation der Dynamik und des Kontakts von Reifenprofilblöcken

XI 1 Einleitung 1 1.1 Zielsetzung . 3 1.2 Gliederung . 4 2 Stand des Wissens 6 2.1 Mechanische Eigenschaften von Elastomeren . 6 2.2 Elastomerreibung . 10 2.2.1 Modelle zur Beschreibung von Hysteresereibung . 11 2.2.2 Modelle zur Beschreibung von Adhäsionsreibung . 12 2.2.3 Phänomenologische Beschreibung von Elastomerreibung . 13 2.3 Verschleiß von Profilblöcken . 15 2.4 Entstehung von Stick-Slip-Schwingungen . 28 2.5 Profilblockmodelle und -simulationen . 31 2.6 Experimentelle Einrichtungen zur Untersuchung von Profilblöcken . 42 2.6. 1 Schwerlasttribometer . 42 2.6. 2 IDS-Tribometer . 44 2.6. 3 Mini-mue-road . 45 2.6. 4 Linear Friction Tester . 46 2.6. 5 Prüfstand für Stollenmessungen . 48 2.6. 6 Hochgeschwindigkeits-Abrollprüfstand . 49 2.6. 7 Hochgeschwindigkeits-Linearprüfstand . 50 2.7 Experimentelle Reibwertbestimmung . 52 3 Profilblockmodell 55 3.1 Modularer Modellansatz . 55 3.2 Modul 1: Strukturdynamik . 58 3.2.1 Transformationsund Reduktionsverfahren . 59 3.2.2 Implementierung in das Gesamtmodell . 72 3.3 Modul 2: Lokale Reibwertcharakteristik . 72 VI INHALTSVERZEICHNIS 3.3.1 Einflussgrößen auf den Reibwert . 72 3.3.2 Numerische Behandlung der Reibwertberechnung . 73 3.4 Modul 3: Nichtlineare Kontaktsteifigkeit . 75 3.4.1 Lokale Kontaktbetrachtungen . 76 3.4.2 Kontaktalgorithmus . 77 3.5 Modul 4: Lokaler Verschleiß . 81 3.5.1 Vorgehen zur Verschleißmodellierung . 81 3.5.2 Implementierung in das Gesamtmodell . 82 4 Parameterbestimmung 84 4.1 Strukturdynamische Parameter . 84 4.1.1 Bestimmung des Elastizitätsmoduls und der Dämpfung . 84 4.1.2 Optimierung der Modenanzahl . 88 4.2 Bestimmung der Reibcharakteristik . 90 4.3 Bestimmung der nichtlinearen Kontaktsteifigkeit . 92 4.4 Bestimmung der Verschleißparameter . 94 5 Simulationen 100 5.1 Betrachtung eines gleitenden Profilblocks . 100 5.1.1 Simulationen bei hoher Gleitgeschwindigkeit ohne Verschleiß . 100 5.1.2 Simulationen bei hoher Gleitgeschwindigkeit mit Verschleiß . 103 5.1. 3 Profilblockverhalten bei niedriger Gleitgeschwindigkeit . 106 5.1. 4 Simulationen mit Normalkraftvorgabe . 114 5.1. 5 Vergleich Experiment-Simulation . 117 5.1. 6 Variation der Profilblockgeometrie . 119 5.2 Betrachtung eines abrollenden Profilblocks . 124 5.2.1 Abrollkinematik . 126 5.2.2 Einfluss der Fahrzeuggeschwindigkeit . 130 5.2.3 Einfluss des Schlupfwerts . 133 5.2.4 Einfluss des Kontaktdrucks . 133 5.2.5 Kontaktkraftbetrachtungen . 135 6 Zusammenfassung 139
A Novel Computational Method for Detecting DNA Methylation Sites with DNA Sequence Information and Physicochemical Properties

DNA methylation is an important biochemical process, and it has a close connection with many types of cancer. Research about DNA methylation can help us to understand the regulation mechanism and epigenetic reprogramming. Therefore, it becomes very important to recognize the methylation sites in the DNA sequence. In the past several decades, many computational methods—especially machine learning methods—have been developed since the high-throughout sequencing technology became widely used in research and industry. In order to accurately identify whether or not a nucleotide residue is methylated under the specific DNA sequence context, we propose a novel method that overcomes the shortcomings of previous methods for predicting methylation sites. We use k-gram, multivariate mutual information, discrete wavelet transform, and pseudo amino acid composition to extract features, and train a sparse Bayesian learning model to do DNA methylation prediction. Five criteria—area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), Matthew’s correlation coefficient (MCC), accuracy (ACC), sensitivity (SN), and specificity—are used to evaluate the prediction results of our method. On the benchmark dataset, we could reach 0.8632 on AUC, 0.8017 on ACC, 0.5558 on MCC, and 0.7268 on SN. Additionally, the best results on two scBS-seq profiled mouse embryonic stem cells datasets were 0.8896 and 0.9511 by AUC, respectively. When compared with other outstanding methods, our method surpassed them on the accuracy of prediction. The improvement of AUC by our method compared to other methods was at least 0.0399. For the convenience of other researchers, our code has been uploaded to a file hosting service, and can be downloaded from: https://figshare.com/s/0697b692d802861282d3.
Validation of loci at 2q14.2 and 15q21.3 as risk factors for testicular cancer

Testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT), the most common cancer in men aged 18 to 45 years, has a strong heritable basis. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have proposed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at a number of loci influencing TGCT risk. To further evaluate the association of recently proposed risk SNPs with TGCT at 2q14.2, 3q26.2, 7q36.3, 10q26.13 and 15q21.3, we analyzed genotype data on 3,206 cases and 7,422 controls. Our analysis provides independent replication of the associations for risk SNPs at 2q14.2 (rs2713206 at P = 3.03 × 10−2; P-meta = 3.92 × 10–8; nearest gene, TFCP2L1) and rs12912292 at 15q21.3 (P = 7.96 × 10−11; P-meta = 1.55 × 10−19; nearest gene PRTG). Case-only analyses did not reveal specific associations with TGCT histology. TFCP2L1 joins the growing list of genes located within TGCT risk loci with biologically plausible roles in developmental transcriptional regulation, further highlighting the importance of this phenomenon in TGCT oncogenesis.
Public Acceptance of Plant Biotechnology and GM Crops

A wide gap exists between the rapid acceptance of genetically modified (GM) crops for cultivation by farmers in many countries and in the global markets for food and feed, and the often-limited acceptance by consumers. This review contrasts the advances of practical applications of agricultural biotechnology with the divergent paths—also affecting the development of virus resistant transgenic crops—of political and regulatory frameworks for GM crops and food in different parts of the world. These have also shaped the different opinions of consumers. Important factors influencing consumer’s attitudes are the perception of risks and benefits, knowledge and trust, and personal values. Recent political and societal developments show a hardening of the negative environment for agricultural biotechnology in Europe, a growing discussion—including calls for labeling of GM food—in the USA, and a careful development in China towards a possible authorization of GM rice that takes the societal discussions into account. New breeding techniques address some consumers’ concerns with transgenic crops, but it is not clear yet how consumers’ attitudes towards them will develop. Discussions about agriculture would be more productive, if they would focus less on technologies, but on common aims and underlying values.
Research on NLP for RE at Fraunhofer FKIE: A Report on Grouping Requirements

In this report we describe the previous research done by our institute in the field of requirement analysis using different natural language processing methods. To represent the different degrees of similarity between words we implemented different methods that make use of synonyms and hyperonyms. We present the strengths of our methods and identify their weaknesses. For our future research we want to incorporate Word Embeddings as they solve most of the difficulties we faced with synonyms and hyperonyms.