Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fracture Characteristics Evaluation by Charpy Impact Bending Test

Shigetomo NUNOMURA and Masashi NAKASHIRO Synopsis: Charpy impact bending test is a rapid inexpensive test for determining fracture characteristics. Load-time relationships from instrumented Charpy test and their temperature dependency were discussed from a viewpoint of evaluating the fracture characteristics. V-notched and fatigue pre-cracked low carbon steel specimens were tested in the range from liquid nitrogen temperature to room temperature. Slow tensile tests and slow bending tests with Charpy-type specimens were also done in the same temperature range. To evaluate the plane strain fracture toughness, the fatigue pre-cracked specimen was desirable. Absorbed energy in pre-cracked impact test could be used for KIC evaluation under a limitation. The varidity of KIC evaluated could be mostly inspected by the form of the loadtime curve. JIC and COD will be obtained using this test. The loading rate has a small effect on fracture characteristics, and since the values evaluated by Charpy impact test are expedient measures the loading rate effect on them is negligible. Dynamic yield strength and microscopic fracture strength could be given by the instrumented v-notched Charpy test result. To improve this test, the more accurate load measurement is required, while the displacement observation is useless.
Patient Perception of Enough Time Spent With Provider Is a Mechanism for Improving Women Veterans’ Experiences With VA Outpatient Health Care

We postulated that associations between two specific provider characteristics, class (nurse practitioner relative to physician) and primary care providers who are proficient and interested in women’s health (designated women’s provider relative to nondesignated) and overall satisfaction with provider, were mediated through women veterans’ perception of enough time spent with the provider. A national patient experience survey was administered to 7,620 women veterans. Multivariable models of overall patient satisfaction with provider were compared with and without the proposed mediator. A structural equation model (SEM) of the mediation of the two provider characteristics was also evaluated. Without the mediator, associations of provider class and designation with overall patient satisfaction were significant. With the proposed mediator, these associations became nonsignificant. An SEM showed that the majority (>80%) of the positive associations between provider class and designation and the outcome were exerted through patient perception of enough time spent with provider. Higher ratings of overall satisfaction with provider exhibited by nurse practitioners and designated women’s health providers were exerted through patient perception of enough time spent with provider. Future research should examine what elements of provider training can be developed to improve provider–patient communication and patient satisfaction with their health care.
On offloading programmable SDN controller tasks to the embedded microcontroller of stateful SDN dataplanes

This paper presents a method to implement complex tasks into stateful SDN programmable dataplanes. In particular, the presented method proposes to use the internal microcontroller typically used to configure the programmable dataplane also to perform some complex operations that do not require to be executed on each packet. These operations can be executed on a set of data gathered by the dataplane and processed in a time scale that is much higher than the time window of a packet, but is much less than time scale needed for an external SDN controller. Moreover, the use of the configuration microcontroller instead of an external SDN controller to avoid the exchange of data on the control links permits a fine grain tuning of the operations to perform from the timing point of view (precise timestamping, low latency etc.). A set of measurements showing the feasibility of the method are presented, and a simple use case is described to show the effectiveness of this method to enhance the capability of stateful programmable dataplanes.
Outer membrane vesicles shield Moraxella catarrhalis β-lactamase from neutralization by serum IgG.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to detect the presence of IgG against Moraxella catarrhalis β-lactamase in healthy adults, and to determine whether outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) could protect the enzyme from inhibition by anti-β-lactamase IgG. METHODS Transmission electron microscopy was used to detect the presence of β-lactamase in OMVs. Sera were examined by ELISA for specific IgG directed against recombinant M. catarrhalis β-lactamase in addition to the outer membrane adhesins MID/Hag, UspA1 and A2. Binding of anti-β-lactamase IgG from serum to OMVs was analysed by flow cytometry. The chromogenic substrate nitrocefin was used to quantify β-lactamase enzyme activity. RESULTS The presence of β-lactamase was determined in OMVs from a 9-year-old child suffering from M. catarrhalis sinusitis. Furthermore, anti-β-lactamase IgG was detected in sera obtained from healthy adults. Out of 40 adult blood donors (aged 18-65 years) tested, 6 (15.0%) carried anti-β-lactamase IgG. No correlation between IgG titres against β-lactamase and the adhesins was found. Flow cytometry analyses revealed that anti-β-lactamase IgG from serum bound to β-lactamase-positive OMVs. By comparing the β-lactamase activity of intact OMV with OMV that were permeabilized with saponin we found that OMVs shielded active β-lactamase from the anti-β-lactamase IgG. CONCLUSIONS Moraxella catarrhalis β-lactamase is found in, or associated with, OMVs, providing clinical relevance for the vesicles in the spread of antibiotic resistance. Furthermore, OMVs protect β-lactamase from specific IgG.
Adaptation and Implementation of a Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Girls in Child Welfare

This study describes the process of adapting and implementing Girls Aspiring toward Independence (GAIN), a trauma-focused, group-based therapy adapted from Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) for girls in child welfare. Descriptive data were examined on 3 outcomes: posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and social problem-solving skills among adolescent girls in the child welfare system. Qualitative and quantitative methods were utilized to inform the adaptation of the CBITS intervention, evaluate feasibility, treatment fidelity, and acceptability, and to test the effects of the intervention. Girls ages 12 to 18 (N = 27) were randomly assigned to the experimental and usual care conditions. Participants’ symptoms of PTSD and depression and social problem-solving skills were evaluated at pre, post- (3 months), and follow-up (6 months) assessments. Adaptations for GAIN were primarily related to program structure. Data indicated that the program was receptive to girls in child welfare and that it was feasible to recruit, randomize, assess outcomes, and implement with adequate fidelity. Retention was more successful among younger girls. Descriptive initial data showed greater reductions in the percentage of girls with PTSD and depression, and modest increases in social problem-solving skills in the experimental versus usual care condition. Despite the growth of knowledge in dissemination and implementation research, the application of trauma-focused empirically supported treatment to child welfare populations lags behind. A large-scale RCT is needed to determine if GAIN is effective in reducing mental health problems and social problem-solving in the child welfare population.
Measuring position determination for realization of automatic inspection using UAV

This paper presents a measuring position determination method of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for automatic visual inspection. Distinguishing measurable geometry of a target facility by an UAV and ensuring reliability in data gathering to detect anomaly are both important functions for inspections. The proposed method is based on the premise that the 3D geometrical data of a target facility and feature of an UAV and a sensor are given. The measuring positions to gather the visual data ensuring reliability are calculated considering positioning error of an UAV systematically. By setting the measuring positions as waypoints, flight paths appropriating for visual inspection can be obtained by using conventional path-planning method. The proposed method is examined through computer simulations on the assumption that an UAV measure image data of several bridges in an actual environmental.
18ß-glycyrrhetinic acid derivative promotes proliferation, migration and aquaporin-3 expression in human dermal fibroblasts

Licorice (Glycyrrhiza) species have been widely used as a traditional medicine and a natural sweetener in foods. The 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid (18β-GA) is a bioactive compound in licorice that exhibits potential anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and anti-microbial activities. Many synthesized derivatives of 18β-GA have been reported to be cytotoxic and suggested for the treatment of malignant diseases. In this study, we explored the possible pharmacological roles of an 18β-GA derivative in skin biology using primary human dermal fibroblasts and HaCaT keratinocytes as cell models. We found that this 18β-GA derivative did not cause cell death, but significantly enhanced the proliferation of dermal fibroblasts and HaCaT keratinocytes. A scratch wound healing assay revealed that the 18β-GA derivative promoted the migration of fibroblasts. Due to the important role of aquaporin-3 in cell migration and proliferation, we also investigated the expression of aquaporin-3 and found this compound up-regulated the expression of aquaporin-3 in dermal fibroblasts and HaCaT keratinocytes. In dermal fibroblasts, the 18β-GA derivative induced the phosphorylation of Akt, ERK, and p38. The inhibitor of Akt predominantly suppressed the 18β-GA derivative-induced expression of aquaporin-3. Collectively, this compound had a positive effect on the proliferation, migration, and aquaporin-3 expression of skin cells, implying its potential role in the treatment of skin diseases characterized by impaired wound healing or dermal defects.
Gender and Women Development Initiatives in Bangladesh: A Study of Rural Mother Center

Women-focused development initiatives have become a controversial issue connected with women's health and welfare. Previous studies indicated that development initiatives might increase women's workload, family conflict, and marital violence. This study explored the gendered characteristics of a development initiative Rural Mother Center in Bangladesh. Data incorporated policy document and interviews of social workers working with the mother centers in two northwest subdistricts. The qualitative content analysis of data emerged a general theme of expanding women's responsibility while maintaining male privilege explaining gendered design and practice of the development initiative. The theme was supported by two gendered categories related to the design: (a) essentializing women's participation; (b) maintaining traditional gender, and four categories related to the practice; (c) inadequate gender knowledge and skills; (d) reinforcing traditional gender; (e) using women for improving office performance; and (f) upholding male privilege. The study suggests that though women-focused development initiatives need to be embraced with gender-redistributive policies, the social workers should be trained for attaining gender-transformative motivation and competencies.
Neuron-enriched RNA-binding Proteins Regulate Pancreatic Beta Cell Function and Survival*

Pancreatic beta cell failure is the central event leading to diabetes. Beta cells share many phenotypic traits with neurons, and proper beta cell function relies on the activation of several neuron-like transcription programs. Regulation of gene expression by alternative splicing plays a pivotal role in brain, where it affects neuronal development, function, and disease. The role of alternative splicing in beta cells remains unclear, but recent data indicate that splicing alterations modulated by both inflammation and susceptibility genes for diabetes contribute to beta cell dysfunction and death. Here we used RNA sequencing to compare the expression of splicing-regulatory RNA-binding proteins in human islets, brain, and other human tissues, and we identified a cluster of splicing regulators that are expressed in both beta cells and brain. Four of them, namely Elavl4, Nova2, Rbox1, and Rbfox2, were selected for subsequent functional studies in insulin-producing rat INS-1E, human EndoC-βH1 cells, and in primary rat beta cells. Silencing of Elavl4 and Nova2 increased beta cell apoptosis, whereas silencing of Rbfox1 and Rbfox2 increased insulin content and secretion. Interestingly, Rbfox1 silencing modulates the splicing of the actin-remodeling protein gelsolin, increasing gelsolin expression and leading to faster glucose-induced actin depolymerization and increased insulin release. Taken together, these findings indicate that beta cells share common splicing regulators and programs with neurons. These splicing regulators play key roles in insulin release and beta cell survival, and their dysfunction may contribute to the loss of functional beta cell mass in diabetes.
Global context-based value prediction

Various methods for value prediction have been proposed to overcome the limits imposed by data dependencies within programs. Using a value prediction scheme, an instruction's computed value is predicted during the fetch stage and forwarded to all dependent instructions to speed up execution. Value prediction schemes have been based on a local context by predicting values using the values generated by the same instruction. This paper presents techniques that predict values of an instruction based on a global context where the behavior of other instructions is used in prediction. The global context includes the path along which an instruction is executed and the values computed by other previously completed instructions. We present techniques that augment conventional last value and stride predictors with global context information. Experiments performed using path-based techniques with realistic table sizes resulted in an increase in prediction of 6.4-8.4% over the current prediction schemes. Prediction using values computed by other instructions resulted in a further improvement of 7.2% prediction accuracy over the best path-based predictor.
Context-based Modeling - Conceptualization of a Novel Modeling Approach and Application for the Design of Business Documents

In this paper a novel reuse approach called context-based modeling is proposed and applied for the modeling of business documents. Business documents constitute mutual agreements, often legally binding between business partners. Already existing document standards reduce the efforts of implementing data exchange. However, the specific properties of an organization entail a need for adaptation. We show that available reuse approaches do not support this appropriately. Context-based modeling is proposed based on the reuse mechanisms aggregation, restriction, and specialization. Context-based modeling aims at both, minimal preparation of reuse combined with a high degree of guidance to create suitable models. The proposal is conceptually explored and practically applied to evaluate the feasibility and efficiency of the approach.
Radiation Constrained Scheduling of Wireless Charging Tasks

This paper studies the problem of <underline>R</underline>adiation c<underline>O</underline>nstrained scheduling of wireless <underline>C</underline>harging tas<underline>K</underline>s (ROCK), that is, given wireless charging tasks with required charging energy and charging deadline for rechargeable devices, scheduling the power of wireless chargers to maximize the overall effective charging energy for all rechargeable devices, and further to minimize the total charging time, while guaranteeing electromagnetic radiation (EMR) safety, i.e., no point on the considered 2-D area has EMR intensity exceeding a given threshold. To address ROCK, we first present a centralized algorithm. We transform ROCK from nonlinear problem to linear problem by applying two approaches of area discretization and solution regularization, and then propose a linear programming-based greedy test algorithm to solve it. We also propose a distributed algorithm that is scalable with network size by presenting an area partition scheme and two approaches called area-scaling and EMR-scaling, and prove that it achieves effective charging energy no less than <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(1-\varepsilon)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of that of the optimal solution, and charging time no more than that of the optimal solution. We conduct both simulation and field experiments to validate our theoretical findings. The results show that our algorithm achieves 94.9% of the optimal effective charging energy and requires 47.1% smaller charging time compared with the optimal one when <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\varepsilon } \geq 0.2$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and outperforms the other algorithms by at least 350.1% in terms of charging time with even more effective charging energy.
Study on Preparation of Scaffold for Tissue Engineering by Thermally Induced Phase Separation Technique

Fabrication of scaffolds for cell growing from biodegradable materials is the key technique in tissue engineering.And thermally induced phase separation is one of important ways to prepare biodegradable three-dimensional porous scaffolds.In this paper,the principles of several phase separation techniques,such as gel casting,the combination of thermally induced gel,emulsion freezing-drying,solid-liquid phase separation and liquid-liquid phase separation,and their applications are reviewed,and the potential applications of phase separation are proposed as well.
Discontinuities in materials and structures: A unifying computational approach

Failure mechanisms in materials and structures can be studied on different length scales. On a structural level, failure can be observed as the propagation of a single crack. However, when zooming into the apparent crack tip, it is revealed that the actual failure process is set by the nucleation and growth of multiple micro-cracks that together form the dominant crack. In crystalline materials, the nucleation of cracks can be traced back to even smaller levels of observation. The collective glide of dislocations in the atomistic structure of these materials appears to be the driving mechanism for the nucleation of micro-cracks near free edges. From a mathematical point of view the creation and propagation of cracks and the glide of dislocations can be considered as evolving discontinuities in the material. This thesis focuses on the numerical representation of these discontinuities on different length scales, varying from the simulation of delamination growth in fibre-metal laminates to a model that incorporates slip due to the motion of discrete dislocations.
Modeling Temperature Dependence of fT in 4H-SiC Bipolar Transistors

This paper models the temperature dependence of fT in 4H-SiC bipolar devices. The proposed model describes variation of the constituent parameters of fT as a function of temperature. The model assumes complete ionization of dopants in 4H-SiC. However, this assumption hampers the model’s utilityat temperatures below 300◦C. The model was simulated attemperatures between 300◦C and 700◦C and a drop in fT wasobserved. However, measurements are required to prove thecorrectness of the model or lack thereof.
Silicon microcontact printing engines

A method of self-aligned, microcontact printing that avoids the need for dedicated alignment and stamping equipment is demonstrated. Complete miniature print engines combining elastically supported print heads with alignment structures that mate with corresponding features on etched substrates to allow mechanical registration are constructed from silicon parts. The impression can be transferred manually or using an in-built mechanism such as electrostatic actuation. 10 mm × 10 mm prototypes are fabricated using microelectromechanical systems technology, using a wafer-scale process based on deep reactive ion etching of either bulk silicon or bonded silicon-on-insulator wafers to form all mechanical parts and polydimethylsiloxane spray coating of etched surfaces to form soft stamps. Electromechanical characterization is performed and manual and electrostatic microcontact printing are both demonstrated through 1-hexadecanethiol ink transfer onto gold-coated surfaces over a 5 mm × 5 mm area with a minimum feature size of ≈2 µm.
Investigating relations among stress, sleep and nail cortisol and DHEA

Abstract In the current study, we present data investigating the relationships among stress, sleep disturbance, self-control, and levels of cortisol (CORT) and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in fingernail clippings. Currently, hair CORT is the only routinely used noninvasive, validated, biomarker of chronic exposure to stress-related hormones. Nail clippings represent an important potential alternative sample matrix for assessing chronic hormone exposure, as it offers a different timeline of hormone incorporation than scalp hair, and may be obtainable from populations in which hair either is lacking or is unavailable for cultural reasons. Moreover, there is established precedent for using fingernail clippings to attain biomarker data. However, the value of nail hormone assessment for psychological research is currently unknown due to a paucity of information on the relations between nail hormone concentrations and environmental or psychological variables. In the present study, we collected data from a low income, minority population (N = 47; 97% African American) to demonstrate feasibility and acceptability of nail collection and analysis of the adrenal steroids CORT and DHEA. Participants reported on perceived stress, sleep and self-control abilities. Correlational analyses suggest that exposure to stressful events, disturbances in sleep and waking were associated with higher levels of nail DHEA, while self-control was associated with higher levels of nail CORT. We discuss the potential importance of this methodology for investigating biological, behavioral, and subjective indices of stress and well-being.