Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Austenite Deformation and Continuous Cooling on the Microstructural Evolution in a Microalloyed Steel

In this thesis, the effect of various thermomechanical controlled processing parameters on the transformed microstructural evolution and grain refinement of an API X-80 high temperature processing steel was investigated by conducting plane strain compression tests followed by continuous cooling. Increasing the strain magnitude below the recrystallisation-stop temperature (T5%) from 0 to 0.5 with a cooling rate of 20˚C/s, a transition from bainitic ferrite (BF) to acicular ferrite (AF) occurs and grain refinement, microhardness and martensite/retained austenite (M/A) constituent refinement is improved. Once the magnitude of strain2 is increased to 0.7, dynamic recrystallisation (DRX) and subsequent static recrystallisation/meta-dynamic recrystallisation (SRX/MDRX) were triggered, weakening the beneficial influences of the austenite deformation. Applying continuous cooling with various cooling rates, ranging from 0.5˚C/s to 50˚C/s, to both fully recrystallised and fully unrecrystallised austenite, the effect of continuous cooling rate was investigated. Based on the results of the effects of austenite deformation and continuous cooling rate on AF transformation, the introduction of intragranular nucleation sites and halting of BF laths nucleated on austenite grain boundaries are found as two conditions that should be fulfilled for the occurrence of acicular ferrite transformation in pipeline steels. The effect of prior-austenite grain size (PAGS) on the microstructural evolution from both recrystallised and unrecrystallised austenite was studied. For microstructures transformed from recrystallised austenite, increasing the PAGS from 22.3 μm to 62.8 μm, the morphology of the transformed BF microstructure is changed and the effective grain size is reduced. For microstructures transformed from unrecrystallised austenite, reducing the PAGS from 62.8 μm to 37.0 μm, the volume fraction of AF is increased and the effective grain size is reduced from 4.5 μm to 2.9 μm. However, further reducing the PAGS from 37.0 μm to 22.3 μm, there are not significant changes on the transformed microstructures and the grain refinement.
The Temporal Evolution of Histological Abnormalities in Microscopic Colitis.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Microscopic colitis (MC) is a common cause of chronic watery diarrhoea but long-term follow-up data are sparse. METHODS We performed a retrospective review of health records and all pathology reports in a regional cohort of patients with MC to describe the change in pre- and post-diagnostic colon biopsies. RESULTS MC was diagnosed in 468 patients with collagenous colitis (CC), 361 with lymphocytic colitis (LC) and 226 with incomplete MC (MCi). The 2014 incidence of CC, LC and MCi was 14.5, 14.9 and 5 per 10(5). Biopsies from both right and left colon were obtained in 237 (51%) patients with CC, 200 (55%) with LC and 107 (47%) with MCi. The diagnostic sensitivities of both left- and right-sided biopsies for MC were high and did not differ. Pre-diagnostic biopsies were obtained in 150 patients and lamina propria inflammation was described in 59, 47 and 43% of patients with a diagnosis of CC, LC and MCi respectively within 1 year, while histology was normal in 16, 13 and 21%. Post-diagnostic biopsies were obtained in 283 patients. MC persisted for up to one year in 77% with CC, 64% with LC and 45% with MCi, of whom 6, 9 and 18% respectively changed to a different MC subgroup. CONCLUSIONS Colonic biopsies obtained prior to the MC diagnosis often revealed increased lamina propria inflammation. The pathological changes of CC and LC are more persistent than those of MCi. Biopsies from the descending or sigmoid colon are sufficient to elucidate whether a patient with chronic watery diarrhoea has MC.
Back propagation error surfaces can have local minima

Summary form only given, as follows. The possible existence of local minima in the error surfaces of backpropagation neural networks has been an important unanswered question. Evidence has demonstrated that error surface regions of small slope with a high mean square error are frequently encountered during training. Such regions are often mistakenly believed to be local minima since no significant decrease in error occurs over considerable training time. In many cases, if training is continued, the shallow region is traversed. Given these experiences, it became plausible to suggest that backpropagation error surfaces have no local minima. A discussion is presented of the results of the exploration of the error surface for two networks, and the discovery of a true local minimum is documented. <<ETX>>
The Implications of Interactional "Repair" for Human-Robot Interaction Design

This paper recaps a recent study in the organization of interactive practices utilized by humans in card-game activities for the purposes of informing the design of human-robot interaction with autonomous social robotic systems. The research utilized an applied Conversation Analytic (CA) approach to focus on the practices by which humans identified and dealt with interactional trouble within the game activity itself, avoiding breakdown of the interactional encounter. We conclude this paper with a brief discussion of the technical implications for future design of autonomous social robots.
Discovery of pathogenic variants in a large Korean cohort of inherited muscular disorders

Inherited muscular disorders (IMDs) are clinically and genetically heterogeneous genetic disorders. We investigated the mutational spectrum and genotype–phenotype correlations in Korean patients with IMD. We developed a targeted panel of 69 known IMD genes and recruited a total of 209 Korean patients with IMD. Targeted capture sequencing identified 994 different variants. Among them, 98 variants were classified as pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants; 38 were novel variations. A total of 39 patients had the pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants. Among them, 75 (36%) patients were genetically confirmed, and 18 (9%) patients had one heterozygous variant of recessive myopathy. However, two genetically confirmed patients had an additional heterozygous variant of another recessive myopathy. Four patients with one heterozygous variant of a recessive myopathy showed different phenotypes, compared with the known phenotype of the identified gene. The major causative genes of Korean patients with IMDs were DMD (19 patients), COL6A1 (9), DYSF (9), GNE (7), LMNA (7), CAPN3 (6), and RYR1 (5). This study showed the mutational and clinical spectra in Korean patients with IMD and confirmed the usefulness of strategies utilizing targeted sequencing.
Continued Impact of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine on Carriage in Young Children

OBJECTIVES: The goals were to assess serial changes in Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes and antibiotic resistance in young children and to evaluate whether risk factors for carriage have been altered by heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7). METHODS: Nasopharyngeal specimens and questionnaire/medical record data were obtained from children 3 months to <7 years of age in primary care practices in 16 Massachusetts communities during the winter seasons of 2000–2001 and 2003–2004 and in 8 communities in 2006–2007. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing and serotyping were performed with S pneumoniae isolates. RESULTS: We collected 678, 988, and 972 specimens during the sampling periods in 2000–2001, 2003–2004, and 2006–2007, respectively. Carriage of non-PCV7 serotypes increased from 15% to 19% and 29% (P < .001), with vaccine serotypes decreasing to 3% of carried serotypes in 2006–2007. The relative contribution of several non-PCV7 serotypes, including 19A, 35B, and 23A, increased across sampling periods. By 2007, commonly carried serotypes included 19A (16%), 6A (12%), 15B/C (11%), 35B (9%), and 11A (8%), and high-prevalence serotypes seemed to have greater proportions of penicillin nonsusceptibility. In multivariate models, common predictors of pneumococcal carriage, such as child care attendance, upper respiratory tract infection, and the presence of young siblings, persisted. CONCLUSIONS: The virtual disappearance of vaccine serotypes in S pneumoniae carriage has occurred in young children, with rapid replacement with penicillin-nonsusceptible nonvaccine serotypes, particularly 19A and 35B. Except for the age group at highest risk, previous predictors of carriage, such as child care attendance and the presence of young siblings, have not been changed by the vaccine.
Economic considerations and patients' preferences affect treatment selection for patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a discrete choice experiment among European rheumatologists

Objective To compare the value that rheumatologists across Europe attach to patients' preferences and economic aspects when choosing treatments for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Methods In a discrete choice experiment, European rheumatologists chose between two hypothetical drug treatments for a patient with moderate disease activity. Treatments differed in five attributes: efficacy (improvement and achieved state on disease activity), safety (probability of serious adverse events), patient's preference (level of agreement), medication costs and cost-effectiveness (incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER)). A Bayesian efficient design defined 14 choice sets, and a random parameter logit model was used to estimate relative preferences for rheumatologists across countries. Cluster analyses and latent class models were applied to understand preference patterns across countries and among individual rheumatologists. Results Responses of 559 rheumatologists from 12 European countries were included in the analysis (49% females, mean age 48 years). In all countries, efficacy dominated treatment decisions followed by economic considerations and patients’ preferences. Across countries, rheumatologists avoided selecting a treatment that patients disliked. Latent class models revealed four respondent profiles: one traded off all attributes except safety, and the remaining three classes disregarded ICER. Among individual rheumatologists, 57% disregarded ICER and these were more likely from Italy, Romania, Portugal or France, whereas 43% disregarded uncommon/rare side effects and were more likely from Belgium, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden or UK. Conclusions Overall, European rheumatologists are willing to trade between treatment efficacy, patients' treatment preferences and economic considerations. However, the degree of trade-off differs between countries and among individuals.
An Innovative Pseudotypes-Based Enzyme-Linked Lectin Assay for the Measurement of Functional Anti-Neuraminidase Antibodies

Antibodies (Ab) to neuraminidase (NA) play a role in limiting influenza infection and might help reduce the disease impact. The most widely used serological assay to measure functional anti-NA immune responses is the Enzyme-Linked Lectin Assay (ELLA) which relies on hemagglutinin (HA) mismatched virus reassortants, or detergent treated viruses as the NA source to overcome interference associated with steric hindrance of anti-HA Ab present in sera. The difficulty in producing and handling these reagents, which are not easily adapted for screening large numbers of samples, limits the routine analysis of functional anti-NA Ab in clinical trials. In this study, we produced influenza lentiviral pseudoparticles (PPs) containing only the NA antigen (NA-PPs) with a simple two-plasmid co-transfection system. NA-PPs were characterized and tested as an innovative source of NA in the NA inhibition (NI) assay. Both swine A/California/07/2009 (H1N1) and avian A/turkey/Turkey/01/2005 (H5N1) N1s within NA-PPs retained their sialidase activity and were specifically inhibited by homologous and N1 subtype-specific, heterologous sheep sera. Moreover, A/California/07/2009 N1-PPs were a better source of NA compared to whole live and detergent treated H1N1 viruses in ELLA, likely due to lack of interference by anti-HA Ab, and absence of possible structural modifications caused by treatment with detergent. This innovative assay is safer and applicable to all NAs. Taken together, these results highlight the potential of NA-PPs-based NI assays to be developed as sensitive, flexible, easy to handle and scalable serological tests for routine NA immune response analysis.
Combined 2D–3D categorization and classification for multimodal perception systems

In this article we describe an object perception system for autonomous robots performing everyday manipulation tasks in kitchen environments. The perception system gains its strengths by exploiting that the robots are to perform the same kinds of tasks with the same objects over and over again. It does so by learning the object representations necessary for the recognition and reconstruction in the context of pick-and-place tasks. The system employs a library of specialized perception routines that solve different, well-defined perceptual sub-tasks and can be combined into composite perceptual activities including the construction of an object model database, multimodal object classification, and object model reconstruction for grasping. We evaluate the effectiveness of our methods, and give examples of application scenarios using our personal robotic assistants acting in a human living environment.
Scalable context-sensitive flow analysis using instantiation constraints

This paper shows that a type graph (obtained via polymorphic typeinference) harbors explicit directional flow paths between functions. These flow paths arise from the instantiations of polymorphic types and correspond to call-return sequences in first-order programs. We show that flow information can be computed efficiently while considering only paths with well matched call-return sequences, even in the higher-order case. Furthermore, we present a practical algorithm for inferring type instantiation graphs and provide empirical evidence to the scalability of the presented techniques by applying them in the context of points-to analysis for C programs.
Analysis of carbon displacement possibilities from conversion of existing fossil fuel driven domestic heating systems to biomass driven domestic heating system

Decarbonisation of Irelands heating system would mean a shift away from traditional fossil fuels, and a step towards more renewable and sustainable thermal energy systems. Climate change and the related consequences associated with it have become a key component of the political agenda at local, national and international levels. It has become clear that further action is needed to tackle global warming and alleviate the dangers associated with the continued warming of our planet. Reduced energy consumption, increased energy efficiency, increased use of renewable energy sources, and the reduction in Green House Gas (GHG) emissions may yet become one of this generation’s defining moments.
Resettable Zero-Knowledge

We introduce the notion of Resettable Zero-Knowledge (rZK), a new security measure for cryptographic protocols which strengthens the classical notion of zero-knowledge. In essence, an rZK protocol is one that remains zero knowledge even if an adversary can interact with the prover many times, each time resetting the prover to its initial state and forcing him to use the same random tape. Under general complexity assumptions, which hold for example if the Discrete Logarithm Problem is hard, we construct (non-constant round) Resettable Zero-Knowledge proof-systems for NP constant-round Resettable Witness-Indistinguishable proof-systems for NP constant-round Resettable Zero-Knowledge arguments for NP in the public key model where verifiers have fixed, public keys associated with them. In addition to shedding new light on what makes zero knowledge possible (by constructing ZK protocols that use randomness in a dramatically weaker way than before), rZK has great relevance to applications. Firstly, we show that rZK protocols are closed under parallel and concurrent execution and thus are guaranteed to be secure when implemented in fully asynchronous networks, even if an adversary schedules the arrival of every message sent. Secondly, rZK protocols enlarge the range of physical ways in which provers of a ZK protocols can be securely implemented, including devices which cannot reliably toss coins on line, nor keep state between invocations. (For instance, because ordinary smart cards with secure hardware are resettable, they could not be used to implement securely the provers of classical ZK protocols, but can now be used to implement securely the provers of rZK protocols.)
Regulative feedback in pattern formation: towards a general relativistic theory of positional information

Positional specification by morphogen gradients is traditionally viewed as a two-step process. A gradient is formed and then interpreted, providing a spatial metric independent of the target tissue, similar to the concept of space in classical mechanics. However, the formation and interpretation of gradients are coupled, dynamic processes. We introduce a conceptual framework for positional specification in which cellular activity feeds back on positional information encoded by gradients, analogous to the feedback between mass-energy distribution and the geometry of space-time in Einstein's general theory of relativity. We discuss how such general relativistic positional information (GRPI) can guide systems-level approaches to pattern formation.
Complex Cooperative Functions of Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans Shape Nervous System Development in Caenorhabditis elegans

The development of the nervous system is a complex process requiring the integration of numerous molecular cues to form functional circuits. Many cues are regulated by heparan sulfates, a class of linear glycosaminoglycan polysaccharides. These sugars contain distinct modification patterns that regulate protein–protein interactions. Misexpressing the homolog of KAL-1/anosmin-1, a neural cell adhesion molecule mutant in Kallmann syndrome, in Caenorhabditis elegans causes a highly penetrant, heparan sulfate–dependent axonal branching phenotype in AIY interneurons. In an extended forward genetic screen for modifiers of this phenotype, we identified alleles in new as well as previously identified genes involved in HS biosynthesis and modification, namely the xylosyltransferase sqv-6, the HS-6-O-sulfotransferase hst-6, and the HS-3-O-sulfotransferase hst-3.2. Cell-specific rescue experiments showed that different HS biosynthetic and modification enzymes can be provided cell-nonautonomously by different tissues to allow kal-1-dependent branching of AIY. In addition, we show that heparan sulfate proteoglycan core proteins that carry the heparan sulfate chains act genetically in a highly redundant fashion to mediate kal-1-dependent branching in AIY neurons. Specifically, lon-2/glypican and unc-52/perlecan act in parallel genetic pathways and display synergistic interactions with sdn-1/syndecan to mediate kal-1 function. Because all of these heparan sulfate core proteins have been shown to act in different tissues, these studies indicate that KAL-1/anosmin-1 requires heparan sulfate with distinct modification patterns of different cellular origin for function. Our results support a model in which a three-dimensional scaffold of heparan sulfate mediates KAL-1/anosmin-1 and intercellular communication through complex and cooperative interactions. In addition, the genes we have identified could contribute to the etiology of Kallmann syndrome in humans.
Methodology for streams definition and graphical representation in Total Site Analysis

The current regulatory framework in Europe regarding industrial energy consumption puts emphasis on regular energy assessments and increasing energy efficiency. Among the available strategies to identify energy savings opportunities, Total Site Analysis (TSA) can be a powerful method to generate utility savings in industrial sites or clusters, targeting for heat recovery and cogeneration potential. The grey box representation of the energy requirements focuses on process/utility heat exchanges when defining hot and cold streams. This representation is usually most suitable when carrying out a TSA on large industrial systems, as direct heat recovery schemes are rarely viable. Since its initial problem definition and solving in the 1990s, a high number of theoretical developments and practical applications have expanded the TSA knowledge. Still an important body of work on TSA techniques and case studies only addresses general aspects and issues that are encountered, and no in-depth explanation yet is found on how to consider specific types of heat consumers and producers. This paper presents a methodology for data collection and streams definition in TSA. It provides a step-by-step approach for defining the process and utility requirements of the main types of heat flows typically found in large industrial systems, including their graphical representations. Using the proposed definitions, it is possible to systematically build composite curves for the total site profiles.
Whole exome sequencing is an efficient, sensitive and specific method for determining the genetic cause of short‐rib thoracic dystrophies

Short‐rib thoracic dystrophies (SRTDs) are congenital disorders due to defects in primary cilium function. SRTDs are recessively inherited with mutations identified in 14 genes to date (comprising 398 exons). Conventional mutation detection (usually by iterative Sanger sequencing) is inefficient and expensive, and often not undertaken. Whole exome massive parallel sequencing has been used to identify new genes for SRTD (WDR34, WDR60 and IFT172); however, the clinical utility of whole exome sequencing (WES) has not been established. WES was performed in 11 individuals with SRTDs. Compound heterozygous or homozygous mutations were identified in six confirmed SRTD genes in 10 individuals (IFT172, DYNC2H1, TTC21B, WDR60, WDR34 and NEK1), giving overall sensitivity of 90.9%. WES data from 993 unaffected individuals sequenced using similar technology showed two individuals with rare (minor allele frequency <0.005) compound heterozygous variants of unknown significance in SRTD genes (specificity >99%). Costs for consumables, laboratory processing and bioinformatic analysis were
Effects of Matrix Densification Based on Particle Packing on Lightweight Al2O3-MgO Castables

The property of refractory matrix was dominated by both the maineral composition and particle packing behaviors. In this study, the theoretical packing density of refractory castables was calculated to design the particle size distribution (PSD) of its matrix. Four lightweight Al2O3-MgO castables with different matrix PSD (represented by q-value) were prepared and examined. Results show that a suitable q-value was needed to ensure acceptable properties including sintering characteristics, strength and slag resistance, which deteriorated distinctly at high q ( > 0.31). For the sample with q = 0.28, the matrix showed dense and uniform mirostructure, and the properties of castable reached a favorable compromise among sintering characteristics (apparent porosity = 14.8%, bulk density = 3.02g∙cm-3, permanent linear change < 0.6%), strength (cold modulus of rapture = 12.4MPa, cold crashing strength=155.5MPa), and resistance against both slag corrosion (Ic = 22.4%) and penetration (Ip = 11.5%). The sample with q = 0.25 showed the highest strength and resistance against slag corrosion, but its slag penetration resistance was lower due to the existence of cracks between aggregates and matrix.