Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A non-linear stiffness composite twisting I-beam

A classic structural component of mechanical engineering, the I-beam, is re-designed by adding a morphing twist functionality to the high bending stiffness inherent to the geometry of the component. The beam, as with its conventional counterpart, is made of two flanges separated by a web. Here, bi-stability is introduced from a combination of flange pre-stress, web geometry and material properties, yielding a highly non-linear twist morphing structure while keeping the low weight and the high bending stiffness of the beam. The present case study offers two twisted stable shapes and can be morphed from one stable configuration to the other by applying a snap-through twist moment to the ends of the structure. Correlation is found between tests results, finite element model data and analytical predictions, validating the modelling assumptions. A sensitivity study is also performed to understand the influence of the design parameters of the beam and loading condition on the stability of the structure. As a result, the three conflicting requirements of adaptive structures are met in a single structural entity: low mass, load-carrying capability and compliance.
Locality-Awareness in Multi-Channel Peer-to-Peer Live Video Streaming Networks

The current multi-channel P2P video streaming architectures still suffer from several performance problems such as low Quality of Service (QoS) in unpopular channels. The P2P systems are inherently dynamic, and their performance problems could be categorized into four groups, peer churn, channel churn, uncooperative peers, and geographical distribution of peers. In this paper, for the first time, we develop a novel locality-incentive framework for multi-channel live video streaming. We propose a hierarchical overlay network architecture by utilizing a dual-mode locality-awareness method (spatial and temporal). Moreover, an incentive mechanism for encouraging peers to dedicate their upload bandwidth is introduced. Finally, an efficient buffer-map structure is proposed to predict the validation time of each video chunk request as well as the receiving time of video chunks. We have evaluated the performance of our framework via extensive simulations and compared it with the state-of-the-art method in multi-channel systems. The simulation results demonstrate that the quality of unpopular channels is improved by up to 38%. Moreover, the proposed method improved the quality of video by reducing the playback delay (up to 27%), distortion (up to 39%), and reducing the redundant traffic into the Internet backbones (up to 43%).
An intelligent deflection router for networks-on-chip

Future manycore systems-on-chip will employ packet-switched, multi-hop interconnection networks-on-chip (NoC). In order to cope with disturbances from, e.g., faults or local traffic overload, some degree of intelligence and adaptivity has to be built into NoC routers. They need to know about their own and their environment's fault and traffic status and take this information into account when making routing decisions. In this paper, we present an approach that selects optimized routes based on a routing cost function which includes route length, fault status, and traffic congestion all at the same time. We investigate the effect on communication performance for an implementation of deflection routing as well as the router's area complexity and compare them against traditional NoC deflection routers.
Knowledge Retention through Low-Tech Knowledge Sharing Channels in Loosely-Coupled Networks: A Human-Based Approach

This study examines a human-based approach for knowledge retention that is evolving through various knowledge sharing channels in a low-technology environment with a strong emphasis on social networks in a loosely-coupled inter-organisational government-industry collaboration focused on regional sustainability. Using social network analysis combined with interview and observational analysis, our results show that a combination of close-knit community ties and group interaction promote the development of strong personal networks that provide continued access to group memory to retain the groups knowledge.
Phase diagram of hard tetrahedra.

Advancements in the synthesis of faceted nanoparticles and colloids have spurred interest in the phase behavior of polyhedral shapes. Regular tetrahedra have attracted particular attention because they prefer local symmetries that are incompatible with periodicity. Two dense phases of regular tetrahedra have been reported recently. The densest known tetrahedron packing is achieved in a crystal of triangular bipyramids (dimers) with a packing density of 4000/4671 ≈ 85.63%. In simulation a dodecagonal quasicrystal is observed; its approximant, with periodic tiling (3.4.3(2). 4), can be compressed to a packing fraction of 85.03%. Here, we show that the quasicrystal approximant is more stable than the dimer crystal for packing densities below 84% using Monte Carlo computer simulations and free energy calculations. To carry out the free energy calculations, we use a variation of the Frenkel-Ladd method for anisotropic shapes and thermodynamic integration. The enhanced stability of the approximant can be attributed to a network substructure, which maximizes the free volume (and hence the wiggle room) available to the particles and facilitates correlated motion of particles, which further contributes to entropy and leads to diffusion for packing densities below 65%. The existence of a solid-solid transition between structurally distinct phases not related by symmetry breaking--the approximant and the dimer crystal--is unusual for hard particle systems.
Summarization of customer reviews for a product on a website using natural language processing

In the recent past, e-commerce sites have made rapid growth. There are thousands of products and various websites sell these products. Massive growth in the number of reviews and their availability along with the advent of opinion-rich review forums for the products sold online, choosing the right one from a large number of products has become difficult for the users. HELP-ME-BUY APP is an android application that assists buyers in online shopping. It is imminent for buyers to verify for genuineness and quality of products. What better way is there than to ask people who have already bought the product? This is when customer reviews come into picture. The major hitch here is popular products have thousands of reviews-we do not have the time or patience to read all thousands of them. Hence, our application eases this task by analyzing and summarizing all reviews which will help the user decide what other buyers have experienced on buying this product. We carry out this process by a number of modules that include feature extraction and opinion extraction which improves the process of analysis and helps in the formation of an efficient summary.
Evolutionary Construction of Multiple Graph Alignments for Mining Structured Biomolecular Data

The concept of multiple graph alignment has recently been introduced as a novel method for the structural analysis of biomolecules. Using inexact, approximate graph-matching techniques, this method enables the robust identification of approximately conserved patterns in biologically related structures. In particular, using multiple graph alignments, it is possible to characterize functional protein families independent of sequence or fold homology. This paper first recalls the concept of multiple graph alignment and then addresses the problem of computing optimal alignments from an algorithmic point of view. In this regard, a method from the field of evolutionary algorithms is proposed and empirically compared to a hitherto existing greedy strategy.
Negative prognostic factors for head and neck cancer in the young.

PURPOSE To evaluate the prognosis of head and neck (HN) squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) diagnosed in young people (≤40 years), and to compare it with the typical older patients. METHODS The study population comprised 69 HN cancer patients below the age of 40 years. An equal-sized control group of older patients was pair-matched with the young cases. Cases and controls were compared for type and frequency of recurrence, in addition to survival. Tongue tumor specimens from 12 women of the study group (6 young and 6 old) were included in a pilot immunohistochemical analysis of estrogen receptors (ER) expression. RESULTS Young patients with early (T1,T2) tongue cancer had shorter overall survival (OS) than their matched controls, but the finding was marginally non-significant (p=0.056). In the young population, late neck metastasis was a particularly aggravating factor for survival (p=0.004). In the case of tongue SCCs, young women were at the greatest risk of recurrence than any other gender-age combination (p=0.006). However, only 8.3% of tumors expressed ER. CONCLUSION Early-stage tongue cancer, regional recurrence, and tongue SCCs in women are negative prognostic factors for young HN cancer patients. Treatment modifications targeting these subgroups might be beneficial.
In vivo effects of insulin‐like growth factor‐I (IGF‐I) on prenatal and early postnatal development of the central nervous system

The in vivo actions of insulin‐like growth factor‐I (IGF‐I) on prenatal and early postnatal brain development were investigated in transgenic (Tg) mice that overexpress IGF‐I prenatally under the control of regulatory sequences from the nestin gene. Tg mice demonstrated increases in brain weight of 6% by embryonic day (E) 18 and 27% by postnatal day (P) 12. In Tg embryos at E16, the volume of the cortical plate was significantly increased by 52% and total cell number was increased by 54%. S‐phase labeling with 5‐bromo‐2′‐deoxyuridine revealed a 13–15% increase in the proportion of labeled neuroepithelial cells in Tg embryos at E14. In Tg mice at P12, significant increases in regional tissue volumes were detected in the cerebral cortex (29%), subcortical white matter (52%), caudate‐putamen (37%), hippocampus (49%), dentate gyrus (71%) and habenular complex (48%). Tg mice exhibited significant increases in the total number of neurons in the cerebral cortex (27%), caudate‐putamen (27%), dentate gyrus (69%), medial habenular nucleus (61%) and lateral habenular nucleus (36%). In the cerebral cortex and subcortical white matter of Tg mice, the total numbers of glial cells were significantly increased by 37% and 42%, respectively. The numerical density of apoptotic cells in the cerebral cortex, labeled by antibodies against active caspase‐3, was reduced by 26% in Tg mice at P7. Our results demonstrate that IGF‐I can both promote proliferation of neural cells in the embryonic central nervous system in vivo and inhibit their apoptosis during postnatal life.
Research on the Control Strategy of Hydraulic Turbine Generating Units Based on Improved FNNC

Because hydraulic turbine generating units system is a complicated non-linear MIMO system, it is difficult to gain better control performance using tradition control strategy to control it. The improved fuzzy neural network controller is presented to control hydraulic turbine generating units. The learning method of network is improved according to the existent problem of fuzzy neural network in on-line learning. The designed fuzzy neural network controller can make reasoning on-line based on fuzzy reasoning system. In training, fuzzy reasoning rules, member function and parameters can be trained on-line through neural network. Simulation experiment results show that the designed improved fuzzy neural network controller may control hydraulic turbine generating units efficaciously and has quick controlling speed and less controlling max-error. So it provides a good control strategy for hydraulic turbine generating units system.
Linked selection, demography and the evolution of correlated genomic landscapes in birds and beyond

Selection has a deep impact on the distribution of genetic diversity and population differentiation along the genome (the genomic landscapes of diversity and differentiation), reducing diversity and elevating differentiation not only at the sites it targets, but also at linked neutral sites. Fuelled by the high‐throughput sequencing revolution, these genomic footprints of selection have been extensively exploited over the past decade with the aim to identify genomic regions involved in adaptation and speciation. However, while this research has shown that the genomic landscapes of diversity and differentiation are usually highly heterogeneous, it has also led to the increasing realization that this heterogeneity may evolve under processes other than adaptation or speciation. In particular, instead of being an effect of selective sweeps or barriers to gene flow, accentuated differentiation can evolve by any process reducing genetic diversity locally within the genome (Charlesworth, ), including purifying selection at linked sites (background selection). In particular, in genomic regions where recombination is infrequent, accentuated differentiation can evolve as a by‐product of diversity reductions unrelated to adaptation or speciation (Cruickshank & Hahn, ; Nachman & Payseur, ; Noor & Bennett, ). In such genomic regions, linkage extends over physically larger genome stretches, and selection affects a particularly high number of linked neutral sites. Even though the effects of selection on linked neutral diversity (linked selection) within populations are well documented (Cutter & Payseur, ), recent observations of diversity and differentiation landscapes that are highly correlated even among independent lineages suggest that the effects of long‐term linked selection may have a deeper impact on the evolution of the genomic landscapes of diversity and differentiation than previously anticipated. The study on Saxicola stonechats by Van Doren et al. ( ) reported in the current issue of Molecular Ecology lines in with a rapidly expanding body of evidence in this direction. Correlations of genomic landscapes extending from within stonechats to comparisons with Ficedula flycatchers add to recent insights into the timescales across which the effects of linked selection persist. Absent and inverted correlations of genomic landscapes in comparisons involving an island taxon, on the other hand, provide important empirical clues about the role of demographic constraints in the evolution of the genomic landscapes of diversity and differentiation.
Magnetically Targeted Stem Cell Delivery for Regenerative Medicine

Stem cells play a special role in the body as agents of self-renewal and auto-reparation for tissues and organs. Stem cell therapies represent a promising alternative strategy to regenerate damaged tissue when natural repairing and conventional pharmacological intervention fail to do so. A fundamental impediment for the evolution of stem cell therapies has been the difficulty of effectively targeting administered stem cells to the disease foci. Biocompatible magnetically responsive nanoparticles are being utilized for the targeted delivery of stem cells in order to enhance their retention in the desired treatment site. This noninvasive treatment-localization strategy has shown promising results and has the potential to mitigate the problem of poor long-term stem cell engraftment in a number of organ systems post-delivery. In addition, these same nanoparticles can be used to track and monitor the cells in vivo, using magnetic resonance imaging. In the present review we underline the principles of magnetic targeting for stem cell delivery, with a look at the logic behind magnetic nanoparticle systems, their manufacturing and design variants, and their applications in various pathological models.
On the Acquisition and Evolution of Compositional Languages: Sparse Input and the Productive Creativity of Children

This paper investigates the productive creativity of children in a computational model of the emergence and evolution of compositional structures in language. In previous models it was shown that compositional structures can emerge in language when the language is transmitted from one generation to the next through a transmission bottleneck. Due to the fact that in these models language is transmitted only in a vertical direction where adults only speak to children and children only listen, this bottleneck needs to be imposed by the experimenter. In the current study, this bottleneck is removed and instead of having a vertical transmission of language, the language is—in most simulations— transmitted horizontally (i.e., any agent can speak to any other agent). It is shown that such a horizontal transmission scenario does not need an externally imposed bottleneck, because the children face an implicit bottleneck when they start speaking early in life. The model is compared with the recent development of Nicaraguan Sign Language, where it is observed that children are a driving force for inventing grammatical (or compositional) structures, possibly due to a sparseness of input (i.e., an implicit bottleneck). The results show that in the studied model children are indeed the creative driving force for the emergence and stable evolution of compositional languages, thus suggesting that this implicit bottleneck may—in part—explain why children are so typically good at acquiring language and, moreover, why they may have been the driving force for the emergence of grammar in language.
Immunochemical and immunoelectron microscope studies on localization of NADPH-cytochrome c reductase on rat liver microsomes

By the use of ferritin-conjugated antibody (conjugate) indirect immunoelectron microscopy, NADPH-cytochrome c reductase was localized on rat liver microsomes. Most microsomes in the sections had from 1 to 12 conjugates on their outer surfaces. Among the conjugates, 83% was estimated to bind to NADPH-cytochrome c reductase at a molecular ratio of 1:1, 12% at the ratio of 2:1, and 5% at the ratio of 3 or 4:1. The correlation between immunochemical and morphological data confirmed that most of the NADPH-cytochrome c reducatase reacted with the conjugates. Subsequent morphological analyses have revealed that the enzyme is distributed homogeneously on the outer surfaces of microsomes but heterogeneously within microsomes in groups of three to five enzyme molecules.
The state of rural information and communication services in Tanzania: A meta-analysis

The study investigated the factors influencing accessibility of rural information services in Tanzania. Specifically the study identified the types of information services provided in rural areas; identified the sources of information used by rural people and determined the barriers to accessibility of information services in rural areas in Tanzania. The study employed a meta-analysis methodology where studies on information services in rural areas in Tanzania were analysed. Findings of the analysis were then compared and contrasted to see the similarities and differences. It was found that there were several information sources used in rural areas ranging from simple face to face communication to modern interactive ICTs including the mobile phones. Despite the availability of a number of information sources, several factors limited the accessibility of information services in rural areas. Findings show that high illiteracy levels, poor/unreliable information infrastructure, low income, lack of electricity and high cost of ICTs have limited the accessibility of information services in rural areas. Others factors including the use of difficulty languages when repackaging information, lack of time to access information and geographical isolation to have also limited some from accessing information services in rural areas. The study recommends that in-order to improve the access to information services in rural areas, it is important to deal with both individual and institutional factors which limit access to information. It is also important to conduct audience research oftenly that appropriate information can be delivered to the right people.
Towards One Shot Learning by imitation for humanoid robots

Teaching a robot to learn new knowledge is a repetitive and tedious process. In order to accelerate the process, we propose a novel template-based approach for robot arm movement imitation. This algorithm selects a previously observed path demonstrated by a human and generates a path in a novel situation based on pairwise mapping of invariant feature locations present in both the demonstrated and the new scenes using a combination of minimum distortion and minimum energy strategies. This One-Shot Learning algorithm is capable of not only mapping simple point-to-point paths but also adapting to more complex tasks such as those involving forced waypoints. As compared to traditional methodologies, our work require neither extensive training for generalisation nor expensive run-time computation for accuracy. This algorithm has been statistically validated using cross-validation of grasping experiments as well as tested for practical implementation on the iCub humanoid robot for playing the tic-tac-toe game.
Identification of a gene regulating the tissue expression of a phosphoglucomutase locus in rainbow trout.

Nine percent of the rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) from a hatchery source have a greater than 100-fold increase in expression of a phosphoglucomutase (PGM) locus, Pgm1, in the liver but have normal expression of this locus in other tissues. The results of genetic crosses are consistent with a single regulatory gene with additive inheritance being responsible for the differences in the amount of PGM activity in the liver. --The allele responsible for the expression of Pgm1 in the liver is apparently a recent mutation. This is supported by its restricted distribution in rainbow trout and the absence of liver Pgm1 expression in closely related species. This genetic system is valuable for future analysis of the control of gene expression and in determining the relative evolutionary importance of genetic variation at structural and regulatory genes.
The water permeability of toad urinary bladder. II. The value of Pf/Pd(w) for the antidiuretic hormone-induced water permeation pathway

Using the methods described in the preceding paper (Levine et al., 1984) for measuring the magnitude of the water-permeable barriers in series with the luminal membrane, we correct measured values of Pd(w) in bladders stimulated with low doses of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) or 8-bromo cyclic AMP to obtain their true values in the luminal membrane. Simultaneously, we also determine Pf. We thus are able to calculate Pf/Pd(w) for the hormone-induced water permeation pathway in the luminal membrane. Our finding is that Pf/Pd(w) approximately equal to 17. Two channel models consistent both with this value and the impermeability of the ADH-induced water permeation pathway to small nonelectrolytes are: (a) a long (approximately equal to 50 A), small- radius (approximately equal to 2 A) pore through which 17 water molecules pass in single-file array, and (b) a shower-head-like structure in which the stem is long and of large radius (approximately equal to 20 A) and the cap has numerous short, small-radius (approximately equal to 2 A) pores. A third possibility is that whereas the selective permeability to H2O results from small-radius (approximately equal to 2 A) pores, the large value of Pf/Pd(w) arises from their location in the walls of long tubular vesicles (approximately 2 micron in length and 0.1 micron in diameter) that are functionally part of the luminal membrane after having fused with it. Aggregate-containing tubular vesicles of these dimensions have been reported to fuse with the luminal membrane in response to ADH stimulation and have been implicated in the ADH-induced hydroosmotic response.