Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-performance TFTs with Si nanowire channels enhanced by metal-induced lateral crystallization

Thin-film transistors with poly-Si nanowire (NW) channels enhanced by metal-induced lateral crystallization (MILC) are reported. The new device features a side-gate with self-aligned NW channels abutting the sidewalls of the gate structure. By adopting the MILC technique, the crystallinity of the NW channels is greatly enhanced, compared to those formed by solid-phase crystallization. As a result, the electrical performance of the devices could be significantly enhanced in terms of reduced subthreshold swing and threshold voltage as well as improved field-effect mobility.
The Persuasiveness of Source Credibility: A Critical Review of Five Decades' Evidence

This paper reviews the empirical evidence of the effect of credibility of the message source on persuasion over a span of 5 decades, primarily to come up with recommendations for practitioners as to when to use a high- or a low-credibility source and secondarily to identify areas for future research. The main effect studies of source credibility on persuasion seem to indicate the superiority of a high-credibility source over a low-credibility one. Interaction effect studies, however, show source credibility to be a liability under certain conditions. The variables found to interact with source credibility are categorized into 5 categories: source, message, channel, receiver, and destination variables. The most heavily researched variables have been the message and receiver variables. Implications for marketers/advertisers and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Oxidized High-Density Lipoprotein Induces Neuron Death

High-density lipoprotein (HDL) exists within the brain and is highly vulnerable to oxidative modifications. The focus of the present study was to determine the effect of HDL and oxidized HDL (oxHDL) upon neurons, astrocytes, and microglia. Administration of highly oxidized HDL, but not native, minimally, or moderately modified HDL resulted in a dose- and time-dependent increase in oxidative stress and death of cultured rat embryonic neurons. Astrocyte and microglia cultures treated with highly oxidized HDL displayed increased reactive oxygen species formation but no toxicity. Application of oxHDL exacerbated oxidative stress and neuron death induced by beta-amyloid peptide. Studies using pharmacological inhibitors implicate the involvement of calcium and reactive oxygen species in oxHDL-induced neuronal loss. Neural cells expressing increased levels of BCL-2 had decreased levels of oxidative stress and neuron death following exposure to oxHDL. Together, these data demonstrate that oxHDL increases oxidative stress in neurons, astrocytes, and microglia which ultimately culminate in neuron death.
Association and dissociation of aggregated IgG from rat peritoneal macrophages

Stable aggregated IgG (A-IgG) of various sizes, having high biological activity, were incubated at 4 degree C with adhering peritoneal macrophages from normal rats and the kinetics of A-IgG binding to the cell surface were studied. Equilibrium constants were high (2.8-11.7 X 10(8) M-1) and varied as a function of aggregate size. The maximum number of A-IgG bound per cell varied from 230,000 for A-IgG9 to 90,000 for A-IgG74. Binding was 50% inhibited by near physiological concentrations of monomeric IgC. These data suggest that A-IgG are bound at multiple sites by attachment of Fc frgments to Fc receptors present on the macrophage surface with larger A-IgG being more avidly bound. Dissociation was slower for larger A-IgG while no clear trend was seen relating associating rates and aggregate size. Thus, differences in the avidity of binding of A-IgG are due primarily to slower dissociation of larger A-IgG. Dissociationissociation of A-IgG was slower from cells exposed initially to higher doses of A-IgG and dissociation did not follow simple first order kinetics. Thus, the avidity of binding appears to be heterogeneous in a population of similar sized A-IgG. As expected, association was dose-dependent, more rapid than dissociation, and followed pseudo first order kinetics. Based on all of the above data, it is proposed that binding of A-IgG proceeds in two steps. First, A-IgG are loosely bound to perhaps a single Fc receptor. Then, depending upon the availability and mobility of Fc receptors, additional Fc fragments are attached and the A-IgG becomes more firmly attached. Thus binding is slow, but once attached A- IgG are avidly held.
Using Integrated Bioinformatics Strategy to Identify Critical Factors for the Structural Integrity of Salmonella T3SS

Type-III secretion system of Gram-negative bacteria is the major molecular machine responsible for the infection of host cells and the in-host survival of the bacteria. The T3SS is composed of three structural components: basal body, needle, and export apparatus. The needle is an extracellular protein complex that recognizes host cells and transport bacterial effector proteins into the host cells. The basal body forms a channel across the bacterial membranes and also provides structural support to the needle. The export apparatus selects effector proteins and initiates the transportation of these proteins. Since all these three structural components are formed by specific proteins, abolishing the interaction of these proteins will disrupt the structural integrity of one or more structural components of T3SS, and eventually affect the infection and/or virulence of the bacteria. In this study, we analyzed the sequential, structural, and interactomic features of Salmonella T3SS structural proteins. We found that these structural proteins have abundant short and/or long disordered regions that overlap with other structured/functional regions. We identified critical interaction patterns and hub proteins SipB, SpaO, and SpaS, in the interactome of T3SS structural proteins. We also predicted novel binding motifs for six T3SS structural proteins of which the interaction partners are unknown. These results are expected to shed light on future studies in the fields of T3SS structural integrity and drug discovery. *Corresponding author: Bin Xue, Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave, ISA 2015, Tampa, FL, USA 33620, Tel: (813) 974-6007; E-mail: binxue@ usf.edu Received date: January 18, 2016 Accepted date: January 29, 2016 Published date: February 03, 2016
Human Neuroscience Original Research Article a Combination of Thematic and Similarity-based Semantic Processes Confers Resistance to Deficit following Left Hemisphere Stroke

Semantic knowledge may be organized in terms of similarity relations based on shared features and/or complementary relations based on co-occurrence in events. Thus, relationships between manipulable objects such as tools may be defined by their functional properties (what the objects are used for) or thematic properties (e.g., what the objects are used with or on). A recent study from our laboratory used eye-tracking to examine incidental activation of semantic relations in a word–picture matching task and found relatively early activation of thematic relations (e.g., broom–dustpan), later activation of general functional relations (e.g., broom–sponge), and an intermediate pattern for specific functional relations (e.g., broom–vacuum cleaner). Combined with other recent studies, these results suggest that there are distinct semantic systems for thematic and similarity-based knowledge and that the " specific function " condition drew on both systems.This predicts that left hemisphere stroke that damages either system (but not both) may spare specific function processing. The present experiment tested these hypotheses using the same experimental paradigm with participants with left hemisphere lesions (N = 17). The results revealed that, compared to neurologically intact controls (N = 12), stroke participants showed later activation of thematic and general function relations, but activation of specific function relations was spared and was significantly earlier for stroke participants than controls. Across the stroke participants, activation of thematic and general function relations was negatively correlated, further suggesting that damage tended to affect either one semantic system or the other. These results support the distinction between similarity-based and complementarity-based semantic relations and suggest that relations that draw on both systems are relatively more robust to damage.
Investigation of the NOTCH3 and TNFSF7 Genes on C19p13 as Candidates for Migraine

To investigate the migraine locus around the C19p13 region through analysis of the NOTCH3 gene (C19p13.2-p13.1), previously shown to be a gene involved in CADASIL and the TNFSF7 gene (C19p13), homologous to the ligands of TNF-alpha and TNF-beta, genes that have previously been associated with migraine. The NOTCH3 gene was analysed by sequencing all exons with known CADASIL mutations in a typical (non-familial hemiplegic) migraine family (MF1) that has previously been shown to be linked to C19p13. The TNFSF7 gene was investigated through SNP association analysis using a matched case-control migraine population. NOTCH3 gene sequencing results for affected members of MF1 proved to be negative for all known sequence variants giving rise to mutations for CADASIL. TNFSF7 gene chi-square results showed non-significant P values across all populations tested against controls, except for the MO subgroup which displayed a possible association with the TNFSF7 SNP (genotype, allele analysis P = 0.036, P = 0.017 respectively). Our results suggest that common migraine is not caused by any known CADASIL mutations in the NOTCH3 gene of interest. However, the TNFSF7 gene displayed signs of involvement in a MO affected population and indicates that further independent studies of this marker are warranted.
Universal metadata repository for document analysis and recognition

Document Analysis and Recognition (DAR) has two main objectives, first the analysis of the physical structure of the input image of the document, which should lead to the correct identification of the corresponding different homogeneous components and their boundaries in terms of XY coordinates. Second, each of these homogeneous components should be recognized in such a way that, if it is a text image, consequently this image should be recognized and translated into an intelligible text. DAR remains one of the most challenging topics in pattern recognition. Indeed, despite the diversity of the proposed approaches, techniques and methods, results remain very weak and away from expectations especially for several categories of documents such as complex, low quality, handwritten and historical documents. The complex structure and/or morphology of such documents are behind the weakness of results of these proposed approaches, techniques and methods. One of the challenging problems related to this topic is the creation of standard datasets that can be used by all stakeholders of this topic such as system developers, expert evaluators, and users. In addition, another challenging problem is how one could take advantages of all existing datasets that unfortunately are dispersed around the world without knowing, most of the times, any information about their locations and the way to reach them. As an attempt to solve the two mentioned above problems, we propose in this paper a Universal Datasets Repository for Document Analysis and Recognition (UMDAR) that has, in fact, a twofold advantage. First, it can help dataset creators to standardize their datasets and making them accessible to the research community once published on the proposed repository. Second, it can be used as a central which bridges in a smart manner between datasets and all DAR stakeholders.
Review Confabulation Theory

Confabulation Theory (Hecht-Nielsen R. Confabulation theory. Springer-Verlag; 2007) is the first comprehensive theory of hu- man and animal cognition. Here, we briefly describe Confabulation Theory and discuss experimental results that suggest the theory is correct. Simply put, Confabulation Theory proposes that thinking is like moving. In humans, the theory postulates that there are roughly 4000 thalamocortical modules, the "muscles of thought". Each module performs an internal competition (confabulation) between its symbols, influenced by inputs delivered via learned axonal associations with symbols in other modules. In each mod- ule, this competition is controlled, as in an individual muscle, by a single graded (i.e., analog) thought control signal . T he fi nal result of this confabulation process is a single active symbol, the expression of which also results in launching of action commands that trigger and control subsequent movements and/or thought processes. Modules are manipulated in groups under coordinated, event-contingent control, in a similar manner to our 700 muscles. Confabulation Theory hypothesizes that the control of thinking is a direct evolutionary outgrowth of the control of movement. Establishing a complete understanding of Confabulation Theory will require launching and sustaining a massive new phalanx of confabulation neuroscience research. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Method for performance improvement and size shrinkage of a three-axis piezoresistive accelerometer with guard-ring structure

A stress isolation guard-ring to reduce the unwanted signals induced by the environmental disturbances for a packaged three-axis piezoresistive accelerometer is proposed [1-2]. This study further reports an optimum design to shrink the size of guard-ring, yet maintain the performance of accelerometer. The commercial finite element analysis (FEA) software, CoventorWare, is employed to evaluate the candidate designs of sensors. The Taguchi's optimum design method is further employed to improve the sensor performances under environment disturbances and to shrink the size of the stress isolation structure. Based on the results, the performance of the accelerometer is improved both in offset shift and sensitivity shift for one order of magnitude, and the size of the stress isolation structure (the sum of guard-ring length/width and connection bridge length) has been shrunk for 29% (from 138 μm to 98 μm). Moreover, the unwanted higher vibration modes are far away from the first three modes. The proposed accelerometer design keeps the advantages of the original three-axis accelerometer design.
Incidental Learning of Temporal Structures Conforming to a Metrical Framework

Implicit learning of sequential structures has been investigated mostly for visual, spatial, or motor learning, but rarely for temporal structure learning. The few experiments investigating temporal structure learning have concluded that temporal structures can be learned only when coupled with another structural dimension, such as musical pitch or spatial location. In these studies, the temporal structures were without metrical organization and were dependent upon participants’ response times (Response-to-Stimulus Intervals). In our study, two experiments investigated temporal structure learning based on Inter-Onset-Intervals in the presence of an uncorrelated second dimension (ordinal structure) with metrically organized temporal structures. Our task was an adaptation of the classical Serial Reaction Time paradigm, using an implicit task in the auditory domain (syllable identification). Reaction times (RT) revealed that participants learned the temporal structures over the exposure blocks (decrease in RT) without a correlated ordinal dimension. The introduction of a test block with a novel temporal structure slowed RT and exemplified the typical implicit learning profile. Post-test results suggested that participants did not have explicit knowledge of the metrical temporal structures. These findings provide the first evidence of the learning of temporal structure with an uncorrelated ordinal structure, and set a foundation for further investigation of temporal cognition.
Risk Factors for Anemia in Preschool Children in Sub-Saharan Africa

Iron is a mineral that is found in nature and foods. It is involved in many physiological functions in the body, and poor iron intake can lead to iron deficiency and later to anemia. Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most prevalent nutritional disorder in the world despite iron being the fourth most common element on earth. Anemia is amongst the most important contributing factors to the global burden of disease. According to a recent WHO report on the global prevalence of anemia, one in four people is affected by anemia worldwide (McLean et al., 2009; WHO, 2008), with pregnant women and preschool-age children at the greatest risk. Two thirds of preschool-age children are affected in developing regions of Africa and South East-Asia, and about 40% of the world’s anaemic preschool-age children reside in South-East Asia (McLean et al., 2009; WHO, 2008). Of the 293.1 million children who suffer from anemia worldwide, 83 million (28%) are in subSaharan Africa, representing 67% of the total population of children of this age group in the continent. Adverse health consequences of anemia in preschool children include altered cognitive function, impaired motor development and growth, poor school performance, poor immune function and susceptibility to infections, decreased in responsiveness and activity, increased in body tension and fatigue. Even before clinical symptoms are visible, iron deficiency that leads to anemia is detrimental to children and may condemn one third of the world population to live permanently below their full mental and physical potential. Indeed, the impact of iron deficiency anemia on psychomotor development and cognitive function in children under the age of two years may be irreversible despite adequate therapy (Lozoff et al., 2000). Horton & Ross (2003) estimated the median productivity lost due to iron deficiency anemia alone to be about US$2.32 per capita or 4.05% of gross domestic product (GDP). The authors estimated an additional US$14.46 per capita lost in cognitive function, for a total annual loss (cognitive & productive) of about $50 billion in GDP worldwide from iron deficiency anemia. Due to its detrimental effects among children, effective interventions
Wide of the Mark: Evidence on the Underlying Causes of Overprecision in Judgment

Overprecision is the most robust and least understood form of overconfidence. In an attempt to elucidate the underlying causes of overprecision in judgment, the present paper offers a new approach – examining people’s beliefs about the likelihood of chance events drawn from known probability distributions. This approach allows us to test the assumption that low hit rates inside subjective confidence intervals arise because those confidence intervals are drawn too narrowly. In fact, subjective probability distributions are systematically too wide, or insufficiently precise. This result raises profound questions for the study of overconfidence.
A national sports institute as a learning culture

Background and purpose: The aim of this study was to describe the learning culture for elite athletes who resided at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) from the perspective of the athletes themselves. As a government entity, the AIS is highly regulated by policies and strategies concerning allocation of funding, facilities, services, and resources. There is a substantial body of research examining government interest in elite sport and, in particular, national and state sporting institutes. These meso-level interactions within the AIS context no doubt have an impact on athlete learning. Learning in this context is political and economic as well as social. Thus, the cultural theory of learning is an important tool in considering the political agenda as an integral part of the learning process within the context of the AIS. Data collection and analysis: Participants for this study were purposefully selected from a larger project involving AIS scholarship holding athletes who were residents at the AIS. The final sample of six female athletes from four different sports participated in a single semi-structured interview aimed at gathering a holistic perspective of the current life experiences of the athletes. Thematic analysis involved the three steps of (1) initial coding of text in relation to the research questions, (2) the development of descriptive themes, and (3) the generation of analytical themes. The theoretical lens of the cultural theory of learning shaped the third step of the analysis. As such, the context within which practice took place including the language, social space and hierarchies, and symbolic message systems were foregrounded. Findings: The successful habitus in this field is one which was described by the athletes as organised with a plan, busy, and with multiple interests. Enhanced athletic performance and motivation to train were tied to being able to have time away from sport to relax and do other things. Being in residence at the AIS produced a commodity-driven orientation and encouraged athletes to diversify in order to increase performance, to gain further funding, to maintain their positions at the AIS which afforded the optimum balance for performance, forming a cycle of the interaction between habitus and field. Conclusion: What this investigation offers is an insight into how a set of meso- and macro-level structures around finance and performance are experienced by a sample of national sport institute residential athletes and may demonstrate conditions related to athlete satisfaction. For this group of athletes at least, ‘living sport’ was not conducive to maintaining elite performance and their place at the AIS. These findings are of relevance to coaches of young high-performance athletes and those involved in policy-making and athlete learning in sports institutes.
Rational Approximation to the Fractional Laplacian Operator in Reaction-Diffusion Problems

This paper provides a new numerical strategy to solve fractional in space reaction-diffusion equations on bounded domains under homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. Using the matrix transform method the fractional Laplacian operator is replaced by a matrix which, in general, is dense. The approach here presented is based on the approximation of this matrix by the product of two suitable banded matrices. This leads to a semi-linear initial value problem in which the matrices involved are sparse. Numerical results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed solution strategy.
Using Local Data to Address Abandoned Property: Lessons Learned From a Community Health Partnership

Abstract:The Problem: A growing body of research highlights the role of the built environment in promoting or impeding health. This research suggests that environmental issues like abandoned properties exact a toll on physical and mental health.Purpose: We describe a community partnership aimed at improving community health through equitable land use policies and blight remediation.Key Points: A collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh and Operation Better Block, Inc. (OBB), a community development corporation in Pittsburgh, was formed. We implemented an intervention to address property abandonment using data-driven techniques. In addition to successful advocacy for city-wide policies addressing abandonment, 80% of the properties that were part of our intervention were improved or addressed by the city.Conclusions: Balancing the needs of community and academic partners can be challenging, but our experiences suggest that community health partnerships to address built environmental issues may be an important conduit to health promotion.