Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
BIO-INSPIRED SURFACES FOR FUNCTIONAL AQUEOUS LUBRICATION

Polymer brushes have been studied through experimental and theoretical means over the past three decades because of the huge potential and possibilities to greatly improve surface properties [1]. Replication takes place by grafting polymers to substrates where one end is tethered to a surface while the other end is free to extend from the surface, constrained only by its elasticity [2]. The chains stretch perpendicular to the substrate due to the steric repulsion between the monomers and the substrate which is highly dependent on the concentration of solution. Fig.1 Figure caption Charged and zwitterionic polymer [2-Methacryloyloxethyl Phosphorylcholine Polymer (MPC)] brushes surfaces can effectively achieve hydrated lubrication. The hydration layer can strongly hold and have the ability to support large pressures without squeezing out, but can also relax very quickly providing fluid response to shear. Such surfaces have been shown to be highly hydrophilic and as a result low friction coefficients (<0.001) have been achieved using nanotribological methods [3]. The aim of this project was to investigate the feasibility of polymer brush technologies as a method of functionalizing a surface for use in water lubricated environments. This was be achieved through a systematic study in which the surfaces, polymer brush chemistry and tribological environment are varied. Whereby the focus will lie upon the effect of corrosion on zwitterionic polymer brushes under hydrated lubricated environments. Methods of optimizing and managing friction and wear response through functional grading and encapsulation within the films will be investigated. Surface characterisation will be conducted through AFM, ellipsometry and contact angle measurement as well as friction testing. REFERENCES [1] Kreer, T. (2016). Polymer-brush lubrication: a review of recent theoretical advances. Soft Matter, 12(15), pp.34793501. [2] Wu, T. , Efimenko, K. and Genzer, J. (2001). Preparing High-Density Polymer Brushes by Mechanically Assisted Polymer Assembly. Macromolecules, 34(4), pp.684-686. [3] Chen, M. , Briscoe, W. , Armes, S. and Klein, J. (2009). Lubrication at Physiological Pressures by Polyzwitterionic Brushes. Science, 323(5922), pp.1698-1701.
FPGA-Accelerated Compactions for LSM-based Key-Value Store

Log-Structured Merge Tree (LSM-tree) key-value (KV) stores have been widely deployed in the industry due to its high write efficiency and low costs as a tiered storage. To maintain such advantages, LSM-tree relies on a background compaction operation to merge data records or collect garbages for housekeeping purposes. In this work, we identify that slow compactions jeopardize the system performance due to unchecked oversized levels in the LSM-tree, and resource contentions for the CPU and the I/O. We further find that the rising I/O capabilities of the latest disk storage have pushed compactions to be bounded by CPUs when merging short KVs. This causes both query/transaction processing and background compactions to compete for the bottlenecked CPU resources extensively in an LSM-tree KV store. In this paper, we propose to offload compactions to FPGAs aiming at accelerating compactions and reducing the CPU bottleneck for storing short KVs. Evaluations have shown that the proposed FPGA-offloading approach accelerates compactions by 2 to 5 times, improves the system throughput by up to 23%, and increases the energy efficiency (number of transactions per watt) by up to 31.7%, compared with the fine-tuned CPUonly baseline. Without loss of generality, we implement our proposal in X-Engine, a latest LSM-tree storage engine.
The Impact of SNCF Strike on Supply and Demand of Ridesharing: Evidence of BlaBlaCar (Draft)

This work studies the impact of SNCF strike from April to June 2018 on the demand and supply of the ridesharing market. Using detailed information available through BlaBlaCar official API, we are able to construct the the market supply curve as well as observed market demand curve by transaction records. We find that total transaction payment increased by 37% on an average strike day comparing to an average non-strike day, while market supply increased by only 9%. We then estimate the elasticity of demand by using the relevant price ranges on the observed market demand curve, taken into consideration of the influence of default price on market demand. We conclude that BlaBlaCar generated additional 0.48 2 million, or 2.30 9.78% of the loss of SNCF, consumer surplus on an average strike day, showing substantial substitutions between SNCF and BlaBlaCar.
Effects of Lower Extremity Eccentric-Based Training on Muscle Strength and Physical Function in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial

PURPOSE: Reduced muscular strength is a key player in loss of physical function and quality of life in older adults. It has been reported that eccentric training has positive effects on the preservation of eccentric strength, produces less delayed onset muscle sore ness, and has a lower metabolic cost for older individuals. Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of eccentric-based train ing on skeletal muscle strength and physical function in older adults. METHODS: Sixteen healthy older subjects (over the age of 65) participated either in eccentric training group (ETG, n=8) or in conven tional resistance training group (CTG, n=8) twice a week for eight weeks. The ETG group performed motorized eccentric training, and the CTG group performed a leg press using air pressure. Physical function and muscular strength assessments were performed before and after 8 weeks. The primary outcomes for physical function included gait speed, stair climbing, and the chair stand test, and the sec ondary outcomes included muscle strength and power. RESULTS: The ETG group demonstrated significant improvements in physical function (gait speed and stair climbing) and muscle strength (isokinetic strength and power in knee tests) (p .05) after 8 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: Motorized eccentric-based training was more effective in improving muscle strength and physical function in aged individuals than conventional resistance training, which s suggests that eccentric training is may be more beneficial for older individuals to improve overall physical function.
Relevancy Classification System for Video Search Results

- Now a day’s Internet is becoming one of the basic needs of human being. Day by day different technologies are coming to enhance the experience of user. Our system will also enhance this experience little bit. This system will enhance the video searching experience of the user by providing different categories, dimensions and last but most important, better and most Holocene searching algorithm that is hummingbird algorithm. We are trying to implement one new algorithm, which includes some features of the hummingbird algorithm and also considers user’s area of interest to provide more relevant search result. This algorithm searches for results on the basis of user’s area of interest. The goal is that matching the meaning do better, rather than matching just a few words.
Political and private life in the 2012 Basque parliamentary election . Study of the format “ A day with the candidate ”

Introduction: Politics play a leading role in today‟s society and this protagonism is not only based on the political discourse of candidates and parties but also on the exposure of the most personal aspects of politicians. That is why in recent times politicians try to show and share more about their professional and most private spheres. Methods: This study is based on the in-depth content analysis of four feature articles about the candidates participating in the 2012 Basque parliamentary election. Research results: Despite the efforts of the media to offer a balanced and neutral framing of the candidates in the four feature articles, there are substantial differences in terms of genres and photojournalistic styles, as well as the linguistic treatment of images. Discussion: The objective is not to determine how the candidate is perceived, but to establish how the candidate is shown, based on the analysis and measurement of several variables. Conclusions: There is a clear discrepancy between the textual narrative and the images that accompany the feature articles, which creates a cognitive dissonance in readers.
Debugging Hiring: What Went Right and What Went Wrong in the Technical Interview Process

The typical hiring pipeline for software engineering occurs over several stages—from phone screening and technical on-site interviews, to offer and negotiation. When these hiring pipelines are “leaky,” otherwise qualified candidates are lost at some stage of the pipeline. These leaky pipelines impact companies in several ways, including hindering a company’s ability to recruit competitive candidates and build diverse software teams.To understand where candidates become disengaged in the hiring pipeline—and what companies can do to prevent it—we conducted a qualitative study on over 10,000 reviews on 19 companies from Glassdoor, a website where candidates can leave reviews about their hiring process experiences. We identified several poor practices which prematurely sabotage the hiring process—for example, not adequately communicating hiring criteria, conducting interviews with inexperienced interviewers, and ghosting candidates. Our findings provide a set of guidelines to help companies improve their hiring pipeline practices—such as being deliberate about phrasing and language during initial contact with the candidate, providing candidates with constructive feedback after their interviews, and bringing salary transparency and long-term career discussions into offers and negotiations. Operationalizing these guidelines helps make the hiring pipeline more transparent, fair, and inclusive.
Bursting bubbles : a numerical convergence study

Bursting bubbles is an ubiquitous phenomenon, from bubbles in a champagne glass, to the surface of the ocean, where bubbles burst and generate sea spray. Here we perform 2D axi-symmetric direct numerical simulations of the bursting of a single bubble with the basilisk Volume Of Fluid (VOF) solver. We present a numerical convergence study of a bubble bursting, with air-water density and viscosity ratio, for a particular case, corresponding to a Laplace number, La = ρliqγRb/μliq = 20000, and Bond number Bo = ρliqgR b/γ = 0.1 where ρliq, μliq, γ, Rb and g are the liquid density, viscosity, interfacial tension, the initial bubble radius and the gravity action respectively. We verify numerical convergence 24ème Congrès Français de Mécanique Brest, 26 au 30 Août 2019 with respect to grid size regarding the jet velocity, and the first droplet radius, and discuss the variability in the subsequent droplets for the increasing grid size. Mots clefs : bubbles, drops, bursting, jet, ocean, numerical simulation
Artificial Intelligence on Edge Computing: a Healthcare Scenario in Ambient Assisted Living

The aging population brings many challenges surrounding the quality of life for older people and their carers, as well as impacts on the healthcare market. Several initiatives all over the world have focused on the problem of helping the aging population with Artiﬁcial Intelligence (AI) technology, aiming at promoting a healthier society, which constitutes a main social and economic challenge. In this paper, we focus on an Ambient Assisted Living scenario in which a Smart Home Environment is carried out to assist elders at home, performing trustworthy automated complex decisions by means of IoT sensors, smart healthcare devices, and edge nodes. The core idea is to exploit the proximity between computing and information-generation sources. Taking automated complex decisions with the help AI-based techniques directly on the Edge enables a faster, more private, and context-aware Edge Computing empowering, called Edge Intelligence.
First record of the formicine genus Overbeckia (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Australia

A collection of ants deeded to the Western Australian Museum by visiting amateur Raul Jordan included representatives of 10 subfamilies, 65 genera and 270 species. The ants were collected in 2002 in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia. Among the specimens were three workers of Overbeckia collected in Mossman, Queensland. This is an extremely rare arboreal genus known previously from only two collections in Singapore and the Philippines. The sole known species is Overbeckia subclavata Viehmeyer, 1916. The Australian material is hairier but otherwise agrees exactly with syntype workers illustrated on AntWeb. The implications of this find are discussed. The alternatives include (i) a new species of Overbeckia possibly endemic to Australia, (ii) the extension of the known range of Overbeckia subclavata and (iii) the introduction to Australia of a hairy morph of O. subclavata by human agency. At present, insufficient material is available to enable this author to choose between these alternatives. The Jordan Collection also includes the first Australian records of Solenopsis papuana Emery, 1900 and Cardiocondyla minutior Forel, 1899. These three new records are of considerable significance, and the value of amateur collections and the importance of good taxonomy are discussed in this paper.
PatHT: an efficient methodof classification over evolving data streams

: Some existing classifications need frequent update to adapt to the change of concept in data streams. To solve this problem, an adaptive method Pattern-based Hoeffding Tree (PatHT) is proposed to process evolving data streams. A key technology of a training classification decision tree is to improve the efficiency of choosing an optimal splitting attribute. Therefore, frequent patterns are used. Algorithm PatHT discovers constraint-based closed frequent patterns incremental updated. It builds an adaptive and incremental updated tree based on the frequent pattern set. It uses sliding window to avoid concept drift in mining patterns and uses concept drift detector to deal with concept change problem in procedure of training examples. We tested the performance of PatHT against some known algorithms using real data streams and synthetic data streams with different widths of concept change. Our approach outperforms traditional classification models and it is proved by the experimental results .
On Identifiability in Unlimited Sampling

In recent work [1], the authors introduced the Unlimited Sampling framework which establishes that a bandlimited function can be perfectly recovered from a constant-factor oversampling of its modulo samples, hence complementing recent developments in sensor design. This new sensing framework allows to overcome the clipping or saturation problem that is a fundamental limitation common to all formats of conventional digital sensing that rely on Shannon’s sampling theorem. In contrast to critical sampling rate of one sample per second, the sampling density criterion prescribed by the Unlimited Sampling Theorem requires a factor of 2πe oversampling. In this paper, we prove identifiability conditions linked with the unlimited sensing setup. Our main result establishes that any sampling rate that is faster than critical sampling allows for one-to-one mapping between a finite energy bandlimited function and its modulo samples. This result is corroborated by experiments and opens further interesting questions around the topic as it relaxes the previously held oversampling criterion.
A Collaborative Approach to Managing Business Processes

— It is difficult for organizations to avoid change, as new ideas promote growth for them and their members. Change occurs for many reasons such as acquisition of new technology; new missions, vision or goals; etc. These changes are frequent and generally impact its business processes, which don’t get the expected attention. Business processes are fundamental to every organization's performance and ability to successfully execute on business strategy. Before improving these processes, they need first to be designed and formalized, which is far from being the case for the majority of organizations. This paper presents BONSAI (collaBOrative busiNess proceSs mAnagement wIki) approach that attempts to offer pragmatic and simple ways in managing business processes using agile and social concepts - help bridge the gap between IT and business and brings the opportunity; empower business users in all process phases through a collaborative environment built entirely with Open Source Software (OSS). We’ll also show the data collected from one pilot project that allowed us to assess BONSAI’s main concepts, draw preliminary results, and initial concluding remarks.
Intelligent feature selection method for accurate laser-based mapping and localisation in self-driving cars

Robust 3D mapping has become an attractive field of research with direct application in the booming domain of self-driving cars. In this paper, we propose a new method for feature selection in laser-based point clouds with a view to achieving robust and accurate 3D mapping. The proposed method follows a double stage approach to map building. In a first stage, the method compensates the point cloud distortion using a rough estimation of the 3-DOF vehicle motion, given that range measurements are received at different times during continuous LIDAR motion. In a second stage, the 6-DOF motion is accurately estimated and the point cloud is registered using a combination of distinctive point cloud features. We show and analyse the results obtained after testing the proposed method with a dataset collected in our own experiments on the Campus of the University of Alcalá (Spain) using the DRIVERTIVE vehicle equipped with a Velodyne-32 sensor. In addition, we evaluate the robustness and accuracy of the method for laserbased localisation in a self-driving application.
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Results of field experiments of wastewater reuse are presented. Two different crops (fennel and lettuce) were grown in succession on sandy loam soil and drip irrigated with three water sources: the effluent of the local full scale municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), the effluent of a pilot scale non-conventional treatment technology, and a conventional source (well water). In order to evaluate the effects of higher ammonia and nitrate concentrations on crop yields and quality, the pilot plant was operated for partial nitrogen removal (mainly nitrification). Results showed that the pilot plant had better removal performance in terms of suspended solids and faecal indicators with respect to the full scale WWTP. As for the agronomic results, crop yields were significantly higher in plots irrigated with treated wastewater.
Pathophysiology of metabolic syndrome-The role of central obesity

Tel. :+2348034947611 The term Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) refers to the clustering of a number of cardiovascular risk factors: obesity (usually central), hypertension, dyslipidaemia, glucose intolerance, prothrombotic state and inflammation. MetS is a predictor of type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Jean Vague in the 1940s and early 1950s related the presence of male type (android form) of adiposity to the development of diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases which are all important factors of the MetS. MetS is defined based on a variety of criteria, such as the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III), World Health Organization (WHO) and International Diabetes Federation (IDF) . Central obesity is an important component of MetS in these definitions. This is largely due to the key role played by the adipocyte in the development of the syndrome. The contents of this article were drawn from an extensive online search of literature covering the subject matter, and aims to review the pathophysiological role of central obesity in the development of the components of the metabolic syndrome.
The prognostic value of miRNA-18a-5p in clear cell renal cell carcinoma and its function via the miRNA-18a-5p/HIF1A/PVT1 pathway

Purpose Clear cell renal cell carcinoma(ccRCC) is the most common type of renal cell carcinoma. While it is curable when detected at an early stage, some patients presented with advanced disease have poor prognosis. We aimed to identify key genes and miRNAs associated with clinical prognosis in ccRCC. Methods The microarray datasets were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) were analyzed by using GEO2R. Then, Functional enrichment analysis was performed using the DAVID. A retrospective series of 254 ccRCC patients with complete clinical information was included in this study. Kaplan-Meier analysis and multivariate cox regression analysis were used for prognostic analysis. Wound healing assay and transwell assay were designed to evaluate the migration and invasion ability of ccRCC cell lines. Results miRNA-18a was identified to be related with prognosis of ccRCC by using Kaplan-Meier analysis and multivariate cox regression analysis demonstrated that the prognostic value of miRNA-18a was independent of clinical features. Further studies showed that up-regulation of miRNA-18a had a positive effect on migration and invasion of ccRCC cells. The target gene (HIF1A) of the miRNA-18a was predicted by using the miRPathDB database. The transcription factors of DEGs were identified by using the i-cisTarget. Luckily, HIF1A was found to be one of the transcription factors of DEGs. Among these DEGs, PVT1 may be regulated by HIF1A and be related with prognosis of ccRCC. Finally, validation of miRNA18a/HIF1A/PVT1 pathway was checked via reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay in both cell lines and clinical tumor samples. Conclusion Our research revealed that miRNA18a/HIF1A/PVT1 pathway might play a crucial role in ccRCC progression, providing novel insights into understanding of ccRCC molecular mechanisms. Importantly, miRNA-18a could serve as a potential diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic targets for ccRCC patients.
Credit Rationing and Relationship Banking

The paper develops a new theory for why some banks implement loan policies that exclude profitable but risky firms. We assume that firms seeking credit will try to evaluate the performance of a bank's existing client portfolio. In case many of the existing clients have entered financial distress, new clients will suspect the bank to be at the origin of the firms' bad performance. In order to signal that they will not endanger the financial health of their borrowers, banks might need to ration riskier, yet profitable, firms.
Effect of Arc Welding Electrode Temperature on Vapor and Fume Composition

Welding fume composition is dependent on the temperature at the surface of a GMAW electrode. This temperature varies with welding parameters and affects the amount, composition, and type of fume. A thermodynamic analysis based on the superheating expected at the surface of the molten electrode tip is presented to help understand observed fume composition.