Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Theoretical insights into the structures of graphene oxide and its chemical conversions between graphene

Xingfa Gao1, De-en Jiang2, Yuliang Zhao3 4, Shigeru Nagase5, Shengbai Zhang1, and Zhongfang Chen6 ∗ 1Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, USA 2Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, MS6201, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37931-6201, USA 3Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China 4National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China, Beijing 100080, People’s Republic of China 5Institute for Molecular Science, Department of Theoretical and Computational Molecular Science, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan 6Institute of Functional Nanomaterials, Department of Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00931, USA
Optogenetic Dissection of Neuronal Circuits in Zebrafish using Viral Gene Transfer and the Tet System

The conditional expression of transgenes at high levels in sparse and specific populations of neurons is important for high-resolution optogenetic analyses of neuronal circuits. We explored two complementary methods, viral gene delivery and the iTet-Off system, to express transgenes in the brain of zebrafish. High-level gene expression in neurons was achieved by Sindbis and Rabies viruses. The Tet system produced strong and specific gene expression that could be modulated conveniently by doxycycline. Moreover, transgenic lines showed expression in distinct, sparse and stable populations of neurons that appeared to be subsets of the neurons targeted by the promoter driving the Tet-activator. The Tet system therefore provides the opportunity to generate libraries of diverse expression patterns similar to gene trap approaches or the thy-1 promoter in mice, but with the additional possibility to pre-select cell types of interest. In transgenic lines expressing channelrhodopsin-2, action potential firing could be precisely controlled by two-photon stimulation at low laser power, presumably because the expression levels of the Tet-controlled genes were high even in adults. In channelrhodopsin-2-expressing larvae, optical stimulation with a single blue LED evoked distinct swimming behaviors including backward swimming. These approaches provide new opportunities for the optogenetic dissection of neuronal circuit structure and function.
Matching Behavior and the Representation of Value in the Parietal Cortex

Psychologists and economists have long appreciated the contribution of reward history and expectation to decision-making. Yet we know little about how specific histories of choice and reward lead to an internal representation of the “value” of possible actions. We approached this problem through an integrated application of behavioral, computational, and physiological techniques. Monkeys were placed in a dynamic foraging environment in which they had to track the changing values of alternative choices through time. In this context, the monkeys' foraging behavior provided a window into their subjective valuation. We found that a simple model based on reward history can duplicate this behavior and that neurons in the parietal cortex represent the relative value of competing actions predicted by this model.
Compaction of Metal Powder by Rolling

AbstractThe powder rolling process has been analysed using the mechanics of powder compaction with a view to the prediction of the thickness and density of the strip. Factors such as roll speed, initial roll gap, feed rate or flowrate of the powder, and friction condition are discussed and a method of analysis taking account of these variables is described. Combined with the experimentally derived rigidity of the rolling mill, it is possible to determine the thickness and density of the strip produced using an electrolytic copper powder; calculated results agree well with experimental results. It is possible to apply the present method to other powders, provided the powder characteristics are known. PM/0268
Localized Multiple Kernel Learning - A Convex Approach

We propose a localized approach to multiple kernel learning that—in contrast to prevalent approaches— can be formulated as a convex optimization problem over a given cluster structure. From which we obtain the first generalization error bounds for localized multiple kernel learning and derive an efficient optimization algorithm based on the Fenchel dual representation. Experiments on real-world datasets from the application domains of computational biology and computer vision show that the convex approach to localized multiple kernel learning can achieve higher prediction accuracies than its global and non-convex local counterparts.
Separation of the osmotically driven fusion event from vesicle-planar membrane attachment in a model system for exocytosis

We demonstrate that there are two experimentally distinguishable steps in the fusion of phospholipid vesicles with planar bilayer membranes. In the first step, the vesicles form a stable, tightly bound pre-fusion state with the planar membrane; divalent cations (Ca++) are required for the formation of this state if the vesicular and/or planar membrane contain negatively charged lipids. In the second step, the actual fusion of vesicular and planar membranes occurs. The driving force for this step is the osmotic swelling of vesicles attached (in the pre- fusion state) to the planar membrane. We suggest that osmotic swelling of vesicles may also be crucial for biological fusion and exocytosis.
Spatial neglect

The syndrome of visuospatial neglect is a common consequence of unilateral brain injury. It is most often associated with stroke and is more severe and persistent following right hemisphere damage, with reported frequencies in the acute stage of up to 80%. Neglect is primarily a disorder of attention whereby patients characteristically fail to orientate, to report or to respond to stimuli located on the contralesional side. Neglect is usually caused by large strokes in the middle cerebral artery territory and is heterogeneous, such that most patients do not manifest every feature of the syndrome. A number of treatments may improve neglect, but there is no widely accepted universal approach to therapy. Although most patients recover spontaneously, the evidence suggests that they continue to have significant cognitive impairments, particularly relating to attention.
3D Character Customization for Non-Professional Users in Handheld Augmented Reality

In gaming, customizing individual characters, can create personal bonds between players and their characters. Hence, character customization is a standard component in many games. While mobile Augmented Reality (AR) games become popular, to date, no 3D character editor for AR games exists. We investigate the feasibility of 3D character customization for smartphone-based AR in an iterative design process.Specifically, we present findings from creating AR prototypes in a handheld AR setting. In a first user study, we found that a tangible AR prototype resulted in higher hedonistic measures than a camerabased approach. In a follow up study, we compared the tangible AR prototype with a non-AR touchscreen version for selection, scaling, translation and rotation tasks in a 3D character customization setting. The tangible AR version resulted in significantly better results for stimulation and novelty measures than the non-AR version. At the same time, it maintained a proficient level in pragmatic measures such as accuracy and efficiency.
Mining Social Theory to Build Member-Maintained Communities

Online communities need regular maintenance activities such as moderation and data input, tasks that typically fall to community owners. Allowing all members to perform maintenance might make communities more robust and valuable. A key challenge in creating member-maintained communities is that we have little knowledge of how to design interfaces to motivate contributors. Social science theories of motivation may be helpful for making and evaluating design choices. We have used Karau and Williams’ collective effort model to develop and evaluate designs that motivate members by making salient the unique contributions they could offer to a group. We also show that using oversight to check contributions to a community database of movies increases members’ motivation to contribute and that peers can provide motivation as well as experts in this domain. Our experiments suggest a number of design elements and guidelines for increasing members’ motivation to maintain their communities.
Parametric appraisal of erosion behaviour of organo-modified montmorillonite-filled epoxy hybrid composites by Taguchi approach

In the present work, the influence of organo-modified montmorillonite loading on the solid particle erosion of carbon fabric-reinforced epoxy composites was investigated. The development of a multi-component composite system consisting of thermoset epoxy resin reinforced with carbon fabric and organo-modified montmorillonite nanoparticles, the erosion behaviour was studied for various erodent size, impact velocity, loading of organo-modified montmorillonite and for different impingement angles. For this purpose, erosion test rig and the design of experiments approach utilizing Taguchi’s orthogonal arrays were used. Of all the above factors, the erodent size has the greatest effect on the reduction in the erosion wear rate. The erosion wear rate variation was found to be in the range of 1.33 × 10−4–48.02 × 10−4 g/g. The lowest erosion wear rate was found in the case of unfilled carbon fabric-reinforced epoxy composite under erodent size of 600 µm, impact velocity of 30 m/s and erodent time of 1 min. Further, the results showed strong dependence of the erosive wear on the erodent size. The organo-modified montmorillonite filled carbon fabric-reinforced epoxy composite showed brittle erosion behaviour with maximum weight loss at 75° impingement angle. Analysis of variance was performed on the measured data and signal to noise ratios were found. The morphology of eroded surfaces was examined using scanning electron microscopy and damage mechanisms were discussed.
Numerical Implementation and Finite Element Analysis of Anisotropic Hyperelastic Biomaterials - Influence of Fibers Orientation

Modeling anisotropic behavior of fiber reinforced rubberlike materials is actually of a great interest in many industrials sectors. Indeed, accurately description of the mechanical response and damage of such materials allows the increase of the lifecycle of these materials which generally evolve under several environment conditions. In this paper theoretical study and finite element analysis of anisotropic biomaterials is presented. The mechanical model adopted to achieve this study has been implemented into the finite element code Abaqus using an implicit scheme. This constitutive law has been utilized to perform some numerical simulations. The material parameters of the model have been determined by numerical calibration. One fiber family is considered in this work. Effects of the fiber orientation on the mechanical response and stiffness change of biomaterial is studied. Both the compressible and incompressible states have been taken into account. The results show firstly the capability of the model to reproduce the known results and that optimal fiber orientation can be found.
Size Matters: Large Objects Capture Attention in Visual Search

Can objects or events ever capture one's attention in a purely stimulus-driven manner? A recent review of the literature set out the criteria required to find stimulus-driven attentional capture independent of goal-directed influences, and concluded that no published study has satisfied that criteria. Here visual search experiments assessed whether an irrelevantly large object can capture attention. Capture of attention by this static visual feature was found. The results suggest that a large object can indeed capture attention in a stimulus-driven manner and independent of displaywide features of the task that might encourage a goal-directed bias for large items. It is concluded that these results are either consistent with the stimulus-driven criteria published previously or alternatively consistent with a flexible, goal-directed mechanism of saliency detection.
Statistical Analysis of Real Aperture Radar Field Backscattered From Sea Surfaces Under Moderate Winds by Monte Carlo Simulations

The statistical properties of the electromagnetic field backscattered from sea surfaces are studied by using asymptotic numerical methods. Sea surfaces are modeled by using the Elfouhaily et al. spectrum model. The influence of the radar spatial resolution on the field statistics is studied for various wind conditions and radar configurations, by considering equal range and azimuth resolutions. It is observed that the backscattered field phase can be assimilated to a uniform distribution and that the amplitude resembles a Rayleigh distribution. Moreover, reducing the radar spatial resolution d induces a stronger variability of the backscattered field amplitude and a departure from the Rayleigh distribution. This departure is enhanced particularly when the radar look approaches the cross-wind direction and also when increasing the wind speed. Also, a fitting of the amplitude distribution with various theoretical statistical laws (gamma, Weibull, K, and so on) highlights the general good fitting of the K distribution, which is in agreement with previous work led from measurements.
A Steerable Needle Technology Using Curved Concentric Tubes

A new approach to steerable needle design is proposed for use in minimally invasive surgery. The technology is based on sets of curved concentric tubes. By rotating and extending the tubes with respect to each other, the position and orientation of the needle tip, as well as the shape of the inserted length, can be controlled. A mechanics model is presented for computing the shape of the needle. Forward and inverse kinematic equations are also derived. In addition, experimental results are presented as validation of the approach
Scalable, Parallel Best-First Search for Optimal Sequential Planning

Large-scale, parallel clusters composed of commodity processors are increasingly available, enabling the use of vast processing capabilities and distributed RAM to solve hard search problems. We investigate parallel algorithms for optimal sequential planning, with an emphasis on exploiting distributed memory computing clusters. In particular, we focus on an approach which distributes and schedules work among processors based on a hash function of the search state. We use this approach to parallelize the A* algorithm in the optimal sequential version of the Fast Downward planner. The scaling behavior of the algorithm is evaluated experimentally on clusters using up to 128 processors, a significant increase compared to previous work in parallelizing planners. We show that this approach scales well, allowing us to effectively utilize the large amount of distributed memory to optimally solve problems which require hundreds of gigabytes of RAM to solve. We also show that this approach scales well for a single, shared-memory multicore machine.
Consensus of Multiagent Systems Subject to Partially Accessible and Overlapping Markovian Network Topologies

This paper addresses the consensus problem for a continuous-time multiagent system (MAS) with Markovian network topologies and external disturbance. Different from some existing results, global jumping modes of the Markovian network topologies are not required to be completely available for consensus protocol design. A network topology mode regulator (NTMR) is first developed to decompose unavailable global modes into several overlapping groups, where overlapping groups refer to the scenario that there exist commonly shared local modes between any two distinct groups. The NTMR schedules which group modes each agent may access at every time step. Then a new group mode-dependent distributed consensus protocol on the basis of relative measurement outputs of neighboring agents is delicately constructed. In this sense, the proposed consensus protocol relies only on group and partial modes and eliminates the need for complete knowledge of global modes. Sufficient conditions on the existence of desired distributed consensus protocols are derived to ensure consensus of the MAS with a prescribed $H_{\infty }$ performance level. Two examples are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed consensus protocol.
The Forager Oral Tradition and the Evolution of Prolonged Juvenility

The foraging niche is characterized by the exploitation of nutrient-rich resources using complex extraction techniques that take a long time to acquire. This costly period of development is supported by intensive parental investment. Although human life history theory tends to characterize this investment in terms of food and care, ethnographic research on foraging skill transmission suggests that the flow of resources from old-to-young also includes knowledge. Given the adaptive value of information, parents may have been under selection pressure to invest knowledge – e.g., warnings, advice – in children: proactive provisioning of reliable information would have increased offspring survival rates and, hence, parental fitness. One way that foragers acquire subsistence knowledge is through symbolic communication, including narrative. Tellingly, oral traditions are characterized by an old-to-young transmission pattern, which suggests that, in forager groups, storytelling might be an important means by which adults transfer knowledge to juveniles. In particular, by providing juveniles with vicarious experience, storytelling may expand episodic memory, which is believed to be integral to the generation of possible future scenarios (i.e., planning). In support of this hypothesis, this essay reviews evidence that: mastery of foraging knowledge and skill sets takes a long time to acquire; foraging knowledge is transmitted from parent to child; the human mind contains adaptations specific to social learning; full assembly of learning mechanisms is not complete in early childhood; and forager oral traditions contain a wide range of information integral to occupation of the foraging niche. It concludes with suggestions for tests of the proposed hypothesis.
Weighted Average Operators Generated by n-dimensional Overlaps and an Application in Decision

In this paper we provide a way to generate a class of weighted average operator from n-dimensional overlap functions and aggregation functions. These weighted average operators are used in an algorithm of a multiattribute group decision making problem based on decision matrix. An illustrative example is considered with the application of our method for two specific weighted average operators of this class. This result is compared with the ranking of other methods.
HRTEM techniques applied to nanocrystal modeling: towards an "atom-by-atom" description

The development of technologies based on nanostructures presents a wide range of challenges for materials scientists and engineers, including the attainment of well-controlled synthesis procedures, the improvement of characterization techniques down to the atomic scale resolution, and the conception and validation of reliable models that can describe materials properties as functions of their morphology and fabrication process. A relevant topic in this scenario is the correlation among the spatial distribution of chemical elements, the surface energy configuration, the growth mechanism, and the resultant nanocrystal 3D morphology. This work presents an overview on the use of advanced HRTEM techniques for the quantitative analysis of nanocrystals and how these results can be used to implement nanocrystals models, which can analytically describe the material features on an atomic level. The presented findings show the combined use of experimental data and theoretical tools, such as image simulation and ab initio surface energy calculations, for the advanced quantitative characterization of nanocrystalline systems. The combination of experimental and theoretical efforts on HRTEM characterization represents a powerful tool for the nanocrystal 3D morphology elucidation with atomic resolution and the chemical/structural properties assessment in a quantitative way. Thereby, it is presented as the stepping stone towards the development of novel approaches to describe nanostructured systems.
Speech output generation in GoalGetter

In this paper a method {or speech output generation in data-to-speech systems is proposed, called phrase concatenation, which tries to find a balance between naturalness and flexibility o{ the speech output. The GoalGetter system, which generates spoken monologues on footbaIl matches, serves as an example. The phrase concatenation technique involves concatenating prerecorded words and phrases, which is new in that different prosodie versions of otherwise identical phrases are recorded.