Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thin Films with High Surface Tension

This paper is a review of work on thin fluid films where surface tension is a driving mechanism. Its aim is to highlight the substantial amount of literature dealing with relevant physical models and also analytic work on the resultant equations. In general the introduction of surface tension into standard lubrication theory leads to a fourth-order nonlinear parabolic equation $$ \pad{h}{t}+\pad{}{x}\left(C \frac{h^3}{3}\frac{\partial^3 h}{\partial x^3} +f(h,h_x,h_{xx})\right) = 0 ,\label{abeq1} $$ where $h=h(x,t)$ is the fluid film height. For steady situations this equation may be integrated once and a third-order ordinary differential equation is obtained. Appropriate forms of this equation have been used to model fluid flows in physical situations such as coating, draining of foams, and the movement of contact lenses. In the introduction a form of the above equation is derived for flow driven by surface tension, surface tension gradients, gravity, and long range molecular forces. Modifications to the equation due to slip, the effect of two free surfaces, two phase fluids, and higher dimensional forms are also discussed. The second section of this paper describes physical situations where surface tension driven lubrication models apply and the governing equations are given. The third section reviews analytical work on the model equations as well as the "generalized lubrication equation" $$ \pad{h}{t}+\pad{}{x}\left(h^n h_{xxx}\right) = 0. $$ In particular the discussion focusses on asymptotic results, travelling waves, stability, and similarity solutions. Numerical work is also discussed, while for analytical results the reader is directed to existing literature.
p190 Rho-GTPase activating protein associates with plexins and it is required for semaphorin signalling

Plexins are transmembrane receptors for semaphorins, guiding cell migration and axon extension. Plexin activation leads to the disassembly of integrin-based focal adhesive structures and to actin cytoskeleton remodelling and inhibition of cell migration; however, the underlying molecular mechanisms are unclear. We consistently observe a transient decrease of cellular RhoA-GTP levels upon plexin activation in adherent cells. One of the main effectors of RhoA downregulation is p190, a ubiquitously expressed GTPase activating protein (GAP). We show that, in p190-deficient fibroblasts, the typical functional activities mediated by plexins (such as cell collapse and inhibition of integrin-based adhesion) are blocked or greatly impaired. Notably, the functional response can be rescued in these cells by re-expressing exogenous p190, but not a mutant form specifically lacking RhoGAP activity. We furthermore demonstrate that semaphorin function is blocked in epithelial cells, primary endothelial cells and neuroblasts upon treatment with small interfering RNAs that knockdown p190 expression. Finally, we show that p190 transiently associates with plexins, and its RhoGAP activity is increased in response to semaphorin stimulation. We conclude that p190-RhoGAP is crucially involved in semaphorin signalling to the actin cytoskeleton, via interaction with plexins.
Remarkably Divergent Regions Punctuate the Genome Assembly of the Caenorhabditis elegans Hawaiian Strain CB4856

The Hawaiian strain (CB4856) of Caenorhabditis elegans is one of the most divergent from the canonical laboratory strain N2 and has been widely used in developmental, population, and evolutionary studies. To enhance the utility of the strain, we have generated a draft sequence of the CB4856 genome, exploiting a variety of resources and strategies. When compared against the N2 reference, the CB4856 genome has 327,050 single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and 79,529 insertion–deletion events that result in a total of 3.3 Mb of N2 sequence missing from CB4856 and 1.4 Mb of sequence present in CB4856 but not present in N2. As previously reported, the density of SNVs varies along the chromosomes, with the arms of chromosomes showing greater average variation than the centers. In addition, we find 61 regions totaling 2.8 Mb, distributed across all six chromosomes, which have a greatly elevated SNV density, ranging from 2 to 16% SNVs. A survey of other wild isolates show that the two alternative haplotypes for each region are widely distributed, suggesting they have been maintained by balancing selection over long evolutionary times. These divergent regions contain an abundance of genes from large rapidly evolving families encoding F-box, MATH, BATH, seven-transmembrane G-coupled receptors, and nuclear hormone receptors, suggesting that they provide selective advantages in natural environments. The draft sequence makes available a comprehensive catalog of sequence differences between the CB4856 and N2 strains that will facilitate the molecular dissection of their phenotypic differences. Our work also emphasizes the importance of going beyond simple alignment of reads to a reference genome when assessing differences between genomes.
Monte Carlo simulation in the case of a single risk factor and evaluation of a European option

This article presents the Monte Carlo method in the context of stochastic simulation models. It is used to calculate a numerical value using random processes. Indeed, it is to isolate a number of variables and their effect a probability distribution. Our research aims to make practical use of the main operative techniques[1] of Monte Carlo simulation applied to finance. In this article, we describe how to develop Monte Carlo simulations in the presence of a single risk factor Y.
Mental Health Status, Shift Work, and Occupational Accidents among Hospital Nurses in Japan

Mental Health Status, Shift Work, and Occupational Accidents among Hospital Nurses in Japan: Kenshu Suzuki, et al. Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nihon University—A questionnaire survey was conducted with questions from the 12‐item General Health Questionnaire, among others, targeting 4,407 nurses in 8 general hospitals in Japan, in the hope of improving the work environment of nurses and to provide data that will allow a discussion of the measures necessary for preventing medical errors, thus improving occupational health. For each type of accident, the percentage of those who had made medical errors was significantly higher for the “mentally in poor health” group than for the “mentally in good health” group (p<0.0001). The percentage of nurses in the “mentally in good health” and “mentally in poor health” groups who had experienced occupational accidents over the past 12 months (i.e., whether they were “with errors” or “without errors”) was calculated for each of the following four types of medical accident:(1) drug‐administration errors, (2) incorrect operation of medical equipment, (3) errors in patient identification, and (4) needlestick injuries. For each type of accident, the percentage of those who had made medical errors was significantly higher for the “mentally in poor health” group than for the “mentally in good health” group (p<0.0001). Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed significant associations between experience of medical errors in the past 12 months and being mentally in poor health, with night or irregular shift work, and age.
Influence of image quality on SWT voting-based color reduction method for detecting text in natural scene images

The aim of the article is to study the influence of image quality on performance of text detection methods in natural scene images with emphasis on text segmentation stage. Natural scene images are often subject to numerous image-quality degradation factors, among which blur and noise are by far most common. To analyze their influence on performance of text detection methods, we systematically evaluated three state-of-the-art text detection methods, namely SWT, text detection-oriented color reduction and our own SWT voting-based color reduction, on the images that were degraded in the image capture process. Experimental results indicate that the SWT voting-based color reduction mostly outperforms the other two state-of-the-art methods. The experiment was carried out on a challenging CVL OCR DB text detection evaluation dataset.
Microarray Gene Expression Data Mining with Cluster Analysis using

After the sequencing of the human genome recently, efforts have been directed towards the annotation of sequenced genes. The functional identity of the genes and the elucidation of their participation in various biological pathway(s) is the prime focus of laboratory research and informatics efforts in this post-genomics era. Since many functionally related genes are co-expressed and coexpression may reveal much about the genes’ regulatory systems, gene expression using microarrays is being used by researchers worldwide in an effort to find answers to the unknown questions faced by the gene sequencing work. In microarray experiments, several diverse conditions in each experiment (time points, multi-dose treatments, replicates) increase the data points from tens of thousands of measurements for a single array to millions for the experiment as a whole. We, therefore, require sophisticated statistical algorithms and tools to mine these large and high dimensional complex datasets to obtain meaningful biological information about the genes in relation to their expression. GeneSightTM from BioDiscovery, Inc. is a comprehensive bioinformatics software solution that offers relevant statistical and data mining tools to obtain biological insights from these complex microarray experiments. This report describes the clustering techniques (hierarchical, k-means and selforganizing maps) performed by GeneSightTM along with confidence and cluster enrichment analysis for the enhanced knowledge discovery from the microarray data.
Performance Parameters Estimation of Pockels High-Voltage Sensors by Means of Numerical Optimization

In this paper, a method for performance parameters estimation of Pockels high-voltage sensors by means of numerical optimization is presented. The proposed method integrates a theoretical model for simulation of Pockels sensors, and the optimization algorithm Pattern Search to estimate the model parameters in order to minimize the difference between the experimental and theoretical peak-peak output voltage. Two Pockels cells were built and tested for validation of the method, where model parameters estimated by means of numerical optimization were substituted in the theoretical model and compared with the experimental data for the peak-peak output voltage and output voltage in function of time, presenting a high degree of agreement between them, showing that the optimization resulted in a good solution.
The levels of faith in the Qur'an : an analysis of the concept of faith in Surat Al-Anfal verses (2-4)

The Almighty Allāh says in verse (4) of Sūrat al-Anfāl; (Such in truth are the believers, they have grades of dignity with their Lord). Some interpreters argued that this verse establishes that the believers are in different levels of faith. The focus of this study is on the levels, attributes and effects of faith as mentioned in the Holy Qur`ān according to Sūrat al-Anfāl verses (2 – 4) and other verses. The selection of this topic is based on the fact that the levels of faith featured in many verses of the Holy Qur`ān, have certain attributes and effects that enable believers to attain the highest levels. This study used a qualitative approach and it refers to the method of explanation and interpretation of phenomena in order to answer the research questions and support the research objectives. This study adopted library-based research in the data collection. The data is then analyze using the textual analysis approach. The findings have identified six levels of faith based on the Quranic verses, the highest level is al-Falāḥ followed by al-Taqwa, al-Yaqīn, al-Ṣabr, al-Khushū‘ and lastly, al-`Iḥsān. The discussion also included methods to ascend to these levels, their attributes and the effects on the morality of individual Muslims. This study suggests that educational and religious institutions should give serious consideration to encourage individual Muslims to investigate the levels of faith in the context of the Holy Qur`ān.
Propagation of stress wave in nickel single crystals nanofilm with cavity via molecular dynamics

In order to investigate the propagation of the stress wave in nickel single crystals nano-film using molecular dynamics, firstly we study the propagation of stress wave in the nickel single crystals nano-film without and with semi-cylinder cavity. Secondly, we research the propagation of stress wave in the nano-film with cavity as the molecule number forming the cavity is same, but the shape of the cavity is different. The shear stress is loaded along x-axis, which is the 0.36Gpa square pulse shear stress and can be maintained 1ps. The simulation result shows that the stress wave does not vanish, which oscillates with a period in the nano-film as the impulse shear stress dies away. The stress values superimpose to give double peak value on the fixed end, and which is reversal on the free end. The effect of cavity on the propagation of stress wave is important. The stress value in the nano-film increases as the cavity size increases. The magnitude of addition stress wave caused by the cavity increases with the cavity size increases, when the shape of cavity is same. With the measure increasing along the direction that the external shear stress is loaded, the addition stress wave value increases even if the molecule number forming cavity is same. As the measure along the direction of the stress wave propagation increases, the lasting time that the stress wave is on each layer is affected intensively. The effect of square cavity on the propagation of stress wave is more than that of the semi-cylinder cavity.
Homo- et hétérosynaptique spike-timing-dependent plasticity aux synapses cortico- et thalamo-striatales

D’apres le postulat de Hebb, les circuits neuronaux ajustent et modifient durablement leurs poids synaptiques en fonction des patrons de decharges de part et d’autre de la synapse. La « spike-timing-dependent plasticity » (STDP) est une regle d’apprentissage synaptique hebbienne dependante de la sequence temporelle precise (de l’ordre de la milliseconde) des activites appariees des neurones pre- et post-synaptiques. Le striatum, le principal noyau d’entree des ganglions de la base, recoit des afferences excitatrices provenant du cortex cerebral et du thalamus dont les activites peuvent etre concomitantes ou decalees dans le temps. Ainsi, l’encodage temporal des informations corticales et thalamiques via la STDP pourrait etre crucial pour l’implication du striatum dans l’apprentissage procedural. Nous avons explore les plasticites synaptiques cortico- et thalamo-striatales puis leurs interactions a travers le paradigme de la STDP. Les principaux resultats sont :1. Les « spike-timing-dependent plasticity » opposees cortico-striatales et thalamo-striatales induisent des plasticites heterosynaptiques. Si la tres grande majorite des etudes sont consacrees a la plasticite synaptique cortico-striatale, peu ont explore les regles de plasticite synaptique aux synapses thalamo-striatale et leurs interactions avec la plasticite cortico-striatale. Nous avons etudie la STDP thalamo-striatale et comment les plasticites synaptiques thalamo- et cortico-striatales interagissent…
Automatic synchronisation elimination in synchronous FORALLs

This paper investigates a promising optimization technique that automatically eliminates redundant synchronization barriers in synchronous FORALLs. We present complete algorithms for the necessary program restrictions and subsequent code generation. Furthermore, we discuss the correctness, complexity, and performance of our restructuring algorithm before we finally evaluate its practical usefulness by quantitative experimentation. The experimental evaluation results are very encouraging. An implementation of the optimization algorithms in our Modula-2* compiler eliminated more than 50% of the originally present synchronization barriers in a set of seven parallel benchmarks. This barrier reduction improved the execution times of the generated programs by over 40% on a MasPar MP-1 with 16384 processors and by over 100% on a sequential workstation. <<ETX>>
Author's Personal Copy Dynamics of Galectin-3 in the Nucleus and Cytoplasm

a r t i c l e i n f o This review summarizes selected studies on galectin-3 (Gal3) as an example of the dynamic behavior of a carbohydrate-binding protein in the cytoplasm and nucleus of cells. Within the 15-member galectin family of proteins, Gal3 (M r ∼ 30,000) is the sole representative of the chimera subclass in which a proline-and glycine-rich NH 2-terminal domain is fused onto a COOH-terminal carbohydrate recognition domain responsible for binding galactose-containing glycoconjugates. The protein shuttles between the cytoplasm and nucleus on the basis of targeting signals that are recognized by importin(s) for nuclear localization and exportin-1 (CRM1) for nuclear export. Depending on the cell type, specific experimental conditions in vitro, or tissue location, Gal3 has been reported to be exclusively cytoplasmic, predominantly nuclear, or distributed between the two compartments. The nuclear versus cytoplasmic distribution of the protein must reflect, then, some balance between nuclear import and export, as well as mechanisms of cytoplasmic anchorage or binding to a nuclear component. Indeed, a number of ligands have been reported for Gal3 in the cytoplasm and in the nucleus. Most of the ligands appear to bind Gal3, however, through protein–protein interactions rather than through protein–carbohydrate recognition. In the cytoplasm, for example, Gal3 interacts with the apoptosis repressor Bcl-2 and this interaction may be involved in Gal3's anti-apoptotic activity. In the nucleus, Gal3 is a required pre-mRNA splicing factor; the protein is incorporated into spliceosomes via its association with the U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP) complex. Although the majority of these interactions occur via the carbohydrate recognition domain of Gal3 and saccharide ligands such as lactose can perturb some of these interactions, the significance of the protein's carbohydrate-binding activity, per se, remains a challenge for future investigations. Galectin-3 (Gal3) belongs to a family of widely distributed proteins that (a) bind to β-galactoside-containing glycoconjugates and (b) contain characteristic amino acid sequences in the carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD) of the polypeptide [1]. The protein consists of a single polypeptide (M r ∼30,000) whose amino acid sequence suggests that it is a chimera of two distinct domains: an NH 2-terminal domain containing repeats of a proline-and glycine-rich motif and a COOH-terminal CRD that shows sequence similarity with the corresponding CRDs of other members of the galectin family [1,2]. Each CRD, ∼130 amino acids, contains highly conserved amino acid residues that interact with carbohydrate, as revealed by X-ray crystallography [3]. The …
Mitigating memory requirements for random trees/ferns

Randomized sets of binary tests have appeared to be quite effective in solving a variety of image processing and vision problems. The exponential growth of their memory usage with the size of the sets however hampers their implementation on the memory-constrained hardware generally available on low-power embedded systems. Our paper addresses this limitation by formulating the conventional semi-naive Bayesian ensemble decision rule in terms of posterior class probabilities, instead of class conditional distributions of binary tests realizations. Subsequent clustering of the posterior class distributions computed at training allows for sharp reduction of large binary tests sets memory footprint, while preserving their high accuracy. Our validation considers a smart metering applicative scenario, and demonstrates that up to 80% of the memory usage can be saved, at constant accuracy.
Three-dimensional visualization of microstructures

This case study describes a technique for the three-dimensional analysis of the internal microscopic structure (microstructure) of materials. This technique consists of incrementally polishing through a thin layer (approximately 0.2 /spl mu/m) of material, chemically etching the polished surface, applying reference marks, and performing optical or scanning electron microscopy on selected areas. The series of images are then processed employing AVS and other visualization software to obtain a 3D reconstruction of the material. We describe how we applied this technique to an alloy steel to study the morphology, connectivity, and distribution of cementite precipitates formed during thermal processing. The results showed microstructural features not previously identified with traditional 2D techniques.
Distributed motor pattern underlying whole-body shortening in the medicinal leech.

Whole-body shortening was studied in the leech, Hirudo medicinalis, by a combination of videomicroscopy and multielectrode recordings. Video microscopy was used to monitor the animal behavior and muscle contraction. Eight suction pipettes were used to obtain simultaneous electrical recordings from fine roots emerging from ganglia. This vital escape reaction was rather reproducible. The coefficient of variation of the animal contraction during whole-body shortening was between 0.2 and 0.3. The great majority of all leech longitudinal motoneurons were activated during this escape reaction, in particular motoneurons 3, 4, 5, 8, 107, 108, and L. The firing pattern of all these motoneurons was poorly reproducible from trial to trial, and the coefficient of variation of their firing varied between 0.3 and 1.5 for different motoneurons. The electrical activity of pairs of coactivated motoneurons did not show any sign of correlation over a time window of 100 ms. Only the left and right motoneurons L in the same ganglion had a correlated firing pattern, resulting from their strong electrical coupling. As a consequence of the low correlation between coactivated motoneurons, the global electrical activity during whole-body shortening became reproducible with a coefficient of variation below 0.3 during maximal contraction. These results indicate that whole-body shortening is mediated by the coactivation of a large fraction of all leech motoneurons, i.e., it is a distributed process, and that coactivated motoneurons exhibit a significant statistical independence. Probably due to this statistical independence this vital escape reaction is smooth and reproducible.
How effective is “ Fuzzies ” as a tool for developing a holistic understanding of basic genetic principles ?

When learning genetics, high-school students often develop misconceptions about the concepts being taught. Of the concepts, one that is commonly misconceived is inheritance. Students often develop a very shallow understanding of what inheritance is and its underlying factors. As a solution, we chose to present an enjoyable, easy way for students to develop a holistic understanding of basic genetics concepts, such as inheritance. This paper discusses the development of a serious game, called “Fuzzies”, that could be used as an effective tool to teach inheritance to high-school students. Within this study we asked the question,“Would player interaction in a game be conducive to learning? ” The discussion also covers our design of player interaction and how this effected how much the player learned. Extensive studies will reveal whether a holistic understanding was developed.