Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In situ growth of ultra-smooth or super-rough thin films by suppression of vertical or horizontal growth of surface mounds

With the development of catalysis, self-cleaning, biomedicine, solid lubrication and precision contact technologies, there is increasing need for ultra-smooth and super-rough functional thin films. However, since the surface roughening mechanism of thin films remains vague, an effective method for in situ growth of ultra-smooth and super-rough films has not been proposed. In this paper, we find that the surface roughening rate (νR) is proportional to the relative vertical-growth coefficient of the mounds (δ) through a series of experiments and simulations on hafnium nitride, hafnium oxide and silver films, which are three typical covalent bonding, ionic bonding, and metallic bonding materials, respectively. This suggests that the formation conditions of the ultra-smooth and super-rough surfaces are δ ≪ 1 and δ ≫ 1, respectively. Therefore, we propose an effective idea for in situ growth of ultra-smooth and super-rough films, which is to suppress the vertical and horizontal mound growth, respectively. By periodically introducing an amorphous layer (e.g. a-CN) and doping the non-wetting inert metal (e.g. Ag) during the deposition process, we effectively suppress the vertical and horizontal mound growth to prepare ultra-smooth and super-rough hafnium nitride films, respectively. The results show that the roughness range of the hafnium nitride films deposited by the new method is about 5 times larger than that reported in previous studies. Therefore, this study provides a complete understanding of the surface roughening mechanism of thin films and develops a general method for the in situ growth of ultra-smooth or super-rough films.
Novel frontiers of dedicated molecular imaging in breast cancer diagnosis

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in women worldwide. In the last years, the contribution of nuclear medicine has grown based on the use of dedicated molecular breast devices for diagnosis and biopsy. Recent technical improvements have been achieved in order to increase the detection of smaller breast lesions using lower doses of radiotracers as well as to facilitate accurate biopsy sampling. Furthermore, new prototypes have been developed combining anatomic and functional imaging. Although the gamma-emitting 99m Tc-sestamibi ( 99m Tc-MIBI) and the positron-emitting 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose ( 18 F-FDG) are the most widely used radiotracers, several new tracers have been investigated to target more specific biologic features of BC like proliferation, angiogenesis and tumour receptor status. Dedicated molecular breast devices have been introduced as an adjunct imaging tool to mammography (MG) and ultrasound (US) in the clinical work-up for BC. Additionally, due to the increased interest in molecular tumour subtype analysis and ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based gene expression profiling tests in the routine clinical practice, a possible new clinical application of dedicated breast imaging concerns locally advanced BC, principally in order to visualise intra-tumour metabolic heterogeneity enabling selection of areas with highest tracer uptake (vital tissue) for core needle biopsy. Hence, it will be possible to more adequately tailor the individual treatment, also enabling therapy response monitoring. This review evaluates the current and future perspectives as well as the shortcomings of breast imaging using dedicated nuclear medicine devices.
Improvement of the Irrigation Scheme in the ORCHIDEE Land Surface Model and Impacts of Irrigation on Regional Water Budgets Over China

In China, irrigation is widespread in 40.7% cropland to sustain crop yields. By its action on water cycle, irrigation affects water resources and local climate. In this study, a new irrigation module, including flood and paddy irrigation technologies, was developed in the ORCHIDEE‐CROP land surface model which describes crop phenology and growth in order to estimate irrigation demands over China from 1982 to 2014. Three simulations were performed including NI (no irrigation), IR (with irrigation limited by local water resources), and FI (with irrigation demand fulfilled). Observations and census data were used to validate the simulations. Results showed that the estimated irrigation water withdrawal ( W ) based on IR and FI scenarios bracket statistical W with fair spatial agreements ( r=0.68±0.07 ; p<0.01 ). Improving irrigation efficiency was found to be the dominant factor leading to the observed W decrease. By comparing simulated total water storage (TWS) with GRACE observations, we found that simulated TWS with irrigation well explained the TWS variation over China. However, our simulation overestimated the seasonality of TWS in the Yangtze River Basin due to ignoring regulation of artificial reservoirs. The observed TWS decrease in the Yellow River Basin caused by groundwater depletion was not totally captured in our simulation, but it can be inferred by combining simulated TWS with census data. Moreover, we demonstrated that land use change tended to drive W locally but had little effect on total W over China due to water resources limitation.
Evaluation of orthodontic treatment needs in school going children of south western Maharashtra population using aesthetic component of iotn index

Introduction: The IOTN is simple to use tool, for measuring the orthodontic treatment need and may be adequate for epidemiological purposes and public health planning. Identification of malocclusion in initial stages and immediately starting a simple orthodontic procedure results in prevention of the number of late orthodontic treatments which can be beneficial. The aim of study was evaluation of orthodontic treatment needs in school going children of south western Maharashtra population using aesthetic component of IOTN index. Materials and Methods: The age group selected was 6-12 yrs. with mixed dentition. Examination was done by a single operator by checking the aesthetic view of the samples and comparing them with set of ten colour photographs showing different levels of dental attractiveness i.e. SCAN. The aesthetic view was examined and marked according to the aesthetic view in SCAN Index. Results: Of the studied subjects (400) 103 subjects were having their aesthetic view as type 7 of the scan index which was the highest followed by 58 subjects having their aesthetic view as type 5 of the scan index. Conclusion: Borderline levels should be lowered. The dividing line between no need of treatment and need for treatment should be distinct. Further studies are required to evaluate if a layman in Khed wants to make a same judgment. Keywords: Index of orthodontic treatment needs, A Standardized continuum of aesthetic need scale, Malocclusion.
Differential efficacies of Cas nucleases on microsatellites involved in human disorders and associated off-target mutations

Microsatellite expansions are the cause of more than 20 neurological or developmental human disorders. Shortening expanded repeats using specific DNA endonucleases may be envisioned as a gene editing approach. Here, a new assay was developed to test several CRISPR-Cas nucleases on microsatellites involved in human diseases, by measuring at the same time double-strand break rates, DNA end resection and homologous recombination efficacy. Broad variations in nuclease performances were detected on all repeat tracts. Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 was the most efficient of all. All repeat tracts did inhibit double-strand break resection. We demonstrate that secondary structure formation on the guide RNA was a major determinant of nuclease efficacy. Using deep sequencing, off-target mutations were assessed genomewide. Out of 221 CAG/CTG or GAA/TTC trinucleotide repeats of the yeast genome, three were identified as carrying statistically significant low frequency mutations, corresponding to off-target effects.
Idioblasts as pathways for distributing water absorbed by leaf surfaces to the mesophyll in Capparis odoratissima

Capparis odoratissima is a tree species native to semi-arid environments of the northern coast of South America where low soil water availability coexists with frequent nighttime fog. Previous work with this species demonstrated that C. odoratissima is able to use water absorbed through its leaves at night to enhance leaf hydration, photosynthesis, and growth. Here, we combine detailed anatomical evaluations of the leaves of C. odoratissima, with water and dye uptake experiments in the laboratory. We used immunolocalization of pectin and arabinogalactan protein epitopes to characterize the chemistry of foliar water uptake pathways. The abaxial surfaces of C. odoratissima leaves are covered with overlapping, multicellular peltate hairs, while the adaxial surfaces are glabrous but with star-shaped “structures” at regular intervals. Despite these differences in anatomy, both surfaces are able to absorb condensed water, but this ability is most significant on the upper surface. Rates of evaporative water loss from the upper surface, however, are coincident with cuticle conductance. Numerous idioblasts connect the adaxial leaf surface and the adaxial peltate hairs, which contain hygroscopic substances such as arabinogalactan proteins and pectins. The highly specialized anatomy of the leaves of C odoratissima fulfills the dual function of avoiding excessive water loss due to evaporation, while maintaining the ability to absorb liquid water. Cell-wall related hygroscopic compounds present in the peltate hairs and idioblasts create a network of microchannels that maintain leaf hydration and promote the uptake of aerial water.
Design and Validation of a Smart Brace; Wearable Technology for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

DESIGN AND VALIDATION OF SMART BRACE; WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY FOR CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME Bryan Piper University of Guelph, 2017 Advisor: Karen Gordon, Ph.D., P.Eng. This research sought to design and validate a wrist brace able to track kinematic data to quantify occupational risk factors related to repetitive strain injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. The wrist brace had rotary encoders positioned over flexion/extension and radial/ulnar deviation joint rotation centres. Thirteen subjects performed activities of daily living while wearing the brace and kinematic data were also collected with VICON motion capture. Range of motion, mean angle, peak and mean velocity, and mean acceleration were compared for each task. There were no significant differences between the brace and VICON measurements in both axial directions. Both collection methods could differentiate between tasks based on the data collected (p<0.025). The brace shows proof of concept for tracking occupational risk factors for carpal tunnel syndrome and use in ergonomic assessment, as well as provide measurements for possible extension of assessment procedures.
Self-Attention ConvLSTM for Spatiotemporal Prediction

Spatiotemporal prediction is challenging due to the complex dynamic motion and appearance changes. Existing work concentrates on embedding additional cells into the standard ConvLSTM to memorize spatial appearances during the prediction. These models always rely on the convolution layers to capture the spatial dependence, which are local and inefficient. However, long-range spatial dependencies are significant for spatial applications. To extract spatial features with both global and local dependencies, we introduce the self-attention mechanism into ConvLSTM. Specifically, a novel self-attention memory (SAM) is proposed to memorize features with long-range dependencies in terms of spatial and temporal domains. Based on the self-attention, SAM can produce features by aggregating features across all positions of both the input itself and memory features with pair-wise similarity scores. Moreover, the additional memory is updated by a gating mechanism on aggregated features and an established highway with the memory of the previous time step. Therefore, through SAM, we can extract features with long-range spatiotemporal dependencies. Furthermore, we embed the SAM into a standard ConvLSTM to construct a self-attention ConvLSTM (SA-ConvLSTM) for the spatiotemporal prediction. In experiments, we apply the SA-ConvLSTM to perform frame prediction on the MovingMNIST and KTH datasets and traffic flow prediction on the TexiBJ dataset. Our SA-ConvLSTM achieves state-of-the-art results on both datasets with fewer parameters and higher time efficiency than previous state-of-the-art method.
Preferential attachment graphs as agent interaction structure

The preferential attachment graphs are considered as the basis for constructing agent interaction structures. The choice of such a structure has a great influence on the results of network processes simulation. Calibration (adjusting generation parameters) of the preferential attachment graphs improves the accuracy of the simulated processes results. An increase in the quality of calibration leads to the construction of adequate graph models. It can be used in processes simulation of telecommunication networks, social networks, cell molecular networks and other large networks of the modern networked world.
What factors results in having a severe crash? a closer look on distraction-related factors

Abstract This study provides a comprehensive literature review to summarize all contributing factors and the logit-based models that were used to predict the severity of crashes. Using the General Estimates Systems (GES) dataset, as a subset and a branch of the National Automotive Sampling System in the US, a Generalized Ordered Logit (GLM) model is developed to predict the crash severity. The developed severity model detects the most important parameters based on characteristics of the driver, the environment, the vehicle, the road, and the type of crash. This study aims to take a more in-depth look into the distraction-related factors as one of the most important groups of contributing factors to traffic crashes. Distraction-related factors are categorized into five groups based on the generating source, including cellular phone, cognitive, passenger, outside events, and in-vehicle activities. Moreover, the effect of distraction on crashes in the presence of other factors is studied. Analyzing the severity of crashes revealed that cell phone usage and distraction caused by in-vehicle activities increase the severity of crashes, whereas other factors of distraction decrease the severity.
Perceived norms of child support payments: a comparative study of South Korea and the United States

ABSTRACT The fulfilment of Child Support payments following divorce is important to ensure children’s wellbeing. Guided by a model of normative influences, we investigated how individuals perceived Child Support payments in South Korea and the United States and if they varied by child’s gender, custody arrangements, changes in the responsible father’s finances, and his financial obligations to an aging parent. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 132 Korean and 132 U.S. participants by utilizing a multiple segment factorial vignette (MSFV). Korean respondents believed more Child Support should be paid than did U.S. respondents. Custody arrangements and changes in the fathers’ finances affected perceived financial obligations of divorced fathers to the child regardless of participants’ country. Having an aging parent in need affected Koreans’ perceptions about Child Support in different ways than U.S. participants. Qualitative responses indicated that Koreans emphasized paternal obligations, whereas U.S. participants stressed the issue of fairness as a rationale. We discuss the results of this study in relation to Child Support compliance in both countries and suggest implications for research and practice.
Third-Party Relational Governance and Collaborative Innovation Performance: The Role of IPR Protection

Abstract The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of third-party relational governance on the performance of collaborative innovation in China. By integrating the relational view and innovation appropriation perspectives, this study analyses the effects of three mechanisms of third-party relational governance—co-reputation, interorganizational routines, and technological norms—on collaborative innovation performance. Additionally, this study investigates the moderating effects of the protection of intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on the relationship between third-party relational governance and collaborative innovation performance. Survey data of high-technology firms in China are used to empirically test the hypotheses. The results show that third-party relational governance has a positive effect on collaborative innovation performance and that IPR protection has different moderating effects. This study contributes to the relational governance literature by adding the perspective of third parties and analyzing three mechanisms of third-party relational governance in a single model. This study also contributes to the innovation appropriation literature by examining the role of IPR protection in governing collaborative innovation in China. Finally, this study offers suggestions on how Chinese firms should govern their collaborative innovation to remedy the limitations of a weak IPR legal institutional framework.
Multimodal neuroimaging in drug naïve genetic generalised epilepsy patients

3 TABLE OF CONTENT . 5 LIST OF TABLES . 11 LIST OF FIGURES . 12 LIST OF ACRONYMS . 15 AKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 21 FUNDING SOURCES . 23 PREFACE . 24 OUTLINE AND STATEMENT OF PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION . 25 CONFERENCE, POSTERS AND TALKS RELATED TO THIS THESIS . 28 SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION . 30 CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION TO GENETIC GENERALISED EPILEPSY . 30 1.1 Genetic Generalised epilepsies GGE . 30 1.1.1 Absence epilepsy . 31 1.1.2 JME . 34 1.1.3 GTCSO . 35 1.2 Diagnoses of GGE. 35 1.3 Treatment in GGE . 36 1.3. 1 Pharmacodynamics . 38
Spatial Recognition Affected by Color and Texture in Architectural Space

In this study, we reproduced the Villa La Roche designed by Le Corbusier and the Casa Gilardi designed by Luis Barragan in a virtual environment which can control the color and texture as variable parameters. Then subjects evaluated the scale and the impression of the houses to clarify the spatial recognition characteristics affected by the color and texture. In the scale and the drawing test, the subjects wearing a VR headset evaluated the scale of the houses and drew the floor plan. As a result, there were a tendency that the Villa La Roche was recognized to be smaller, while the Casa Gilardi was recognized to be real scale or a little larger. In addition, the subjects wearing a VR headset evaluated the space impression by SD method. The results showed characteristic changes in space impression according to the color and texture.
Determination of conditions that may prevent the effective use of blood in blood transfusion

Objective: This study was conducted to determine conditions that may prevent the effective use of blood in blood transfusion. Methods: The study's universe consisted of transplanted and wasted blood and blood products (n=309) in a university research hospital orthopedics and traumatology, neurosurgery, pediatric hematology and pediatric intensive care clinics. Between 10.12. 2014 and 20.04. 2015, in the mentioned clinics, the data about blood waste and reasons was collected. The rates of use and waste of blood according to clinics, the rates of use and waste of blood according to the age of patients and the rates of use and waste of blood according to blood groups were analyzed by using independent t test. Results: When the blood ratios used and wasted according to the clinics were examined, the mean blood amount used in the neonatal intensive care clinic was 27,79 ml, while the amount of blood wasted was 472,43 ml (Due to 500 ml Blood bags). The mean amount of blood used in the pediatric hematology clinic was 189.62 ml, and the amount of blood wasted at the same clinic was 310.38 ml. When the reasons of blood waste were examined, it was concluded that the rate of not using pediatric blood bags was 40.1% and the rate of unnecessary request was 59.9%. Conclusion: As a result, despite the fact that there is still not enough blood donations nowadays, it seems that blood is wasted because of preventable causes and not being used effectively.
The quest of chirality in the interstellar medium

Context. All but one complex organic molecule (COM) detected so far in the interstellar medium (ISM) are achiral; propylene oxide (c-C2H3O)-CH3 is the only exception to this. Finding other chiral species is a priority for astrobiology to progress in the understanding of the emergence of life. Whatever the conditions of their formation, i.e., gas phase or grain chemistry, the detection relies on rotational spectra. This means that, if adsorbed after formation in the gas phase or directly formed on the icy grains, these COMs must escape in the gas phase as free flyers to be detectable. Aims. Learning the lesson drawn from the only observation of a chiral compound and considering the structural constraints imposed to a molecule to be chiral, we look at what species could satisfy these conditions and be potential targets for a radio astronomy search in the ISM gas phase. Methods. This question was addressed by combining two complementary approaches that rely on density functional theory. The structure, energetics, and spectroscopic parameters of each potential candidate were determined using molecular calculations. The propensity for a molecule to remain trapped on the ice coating of the grains was evaluated by numerical simulations making use of a solid state periodic model. Results. Replacing the -CH3 group on rigid propylene oxide by -CN, -CCH, -NH2, -OH, or -HCO gives oxirane daughter molecules whose adsorption energies divide into two classes: below and above the adsorption energy of H2O on solid water-ice ~13.5 kcal mol−1. Conclusions. The best chiral candidate would be a rigid molecule for an easier determination of its radio spectra. This molecule would be composed of a central carbon linked to one hydrogen and three different chemical groups as simple as possible. If not the most stable isomer, this candidate should be as close as possible on the energy scale, possess a significant dipole moment, and be less strongly attached to the ice than H2O itself.
Geriatric rehabilitation : Development, implementation and evaluation of an integrated care pathway for patients with complex health problems

Older adults who receive rehabilitation therapy in a geriatric rehabilitation care facility after being discharged from hospital and then receive aftercare in their home environment, come into touch with many care providers. This may result in a lack of continuity and coordination of care. A care pathway was developed and implemented in order to improve the integration of care offered by these facilities and care providers. Studies that constitute this dissertation show that after three months, the care pathway is effective in improving the frequency of performing daily activities among patients. The care pathway also resulted in a larger proportion of patients being discharged home after receiving geriatric rehabilitation care, a lower self-rated burden among informal caregivers after three months and cost savings.