Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DFT modelling of ceramic materials and interfaces

The introduction of computer simulations has promoted significant design optimisation and cost reduction in many fields of engineering. Nowadays, atomistic modelling of materials is becoming time and cost effective not only for pure research, but also for cutting-edge engineering applications. In this paper we present an overview of atomistic materials modelling, with particular emphasis on Quantum Mechanical (QM) simulations based on the Density Functional Theory (DFT). As examples of applications to ceramics, we report about computational investigations of the oxidation of metal surfaces, of the chemical reactivity of biomaterials, of the reinforcement mechanisms in nano-composites, and of graphitisation of SiC.
Flavodiiron Proteins Promote Fast and Transient O2 Photoreduction in Chlamydomonas1[OPEN]

Chlamydomonas flavodiiron proteins FlvA and FlvB massively drive the photosynthetic electron flow to O2 during the induction of photosynthesis and are critical for growth in fluctuating light. During oxygenic photosynthesis, the reducing power generated by light energy conversion is mainly used to reduce carbon dioxide. In bacteria and archae, flavodiiron (Flv) proteins catalyze O2 or NO reduction, thus protecting cells against oxidative or nitrosative stress. These proteins are found in cyanobacteria, mosses, and microalgae, but have been lost in angiosperms. Here, we used chlorophyll fluorescence and oxygen exchange measurement using [18O]-labeled O2 and a membrane inlet mass spectrometer to characterize Chlamydomonas reinhardtii flvB insertion mutants devoid of both FlvB and FlvA proteins. We show that Flv proteins are involved in a photo-dependent electron flow to oxygen, which drives most of the photosynthetic electron flow during the induction of photosynthesis. As a consequence, the chlorophyll fluorescence patterns are strongly affected in flvB mutants during a light transient, showing a lower PSII operating yield and a slower nonphotochemical quenching induction. Photoautotrophic growth of flvB mutants was indistinguishable from the wild type under constant light, but severely impaired under fluctuating light due to PSI photo damage. Remarkably, net photosynthesis of flv mutants was higher than in the wild type during the initial hour of a fluctuating light regime, but this advantage vanished under long-term exposure, and turned into PSI photo damage, thus explaining the marked growth retardation observed in these conditions. We conclude that the C. reinhardtii Flv participates in a Mehler-like reduction of O2, which drives a large part of the photosynthetic electron flow during a light transient and is thus critical for growth under fluctuating light regimes.
On Fixed Convex Combinations of No-regret Learners on Fixed Convex Combinations of No-regret Learners

No-regret algorithms are powerful tools for learning in online convex problems that have received increased attention in recent years. Considering affine and external regret, we investigate what happens when a set of no-regret learners (voters) merge their respective strategies in each learning iteration to a single, common one in form of a convex combination. We show that an agent who executes this merged decision in each iteration of the online learning process and each time feeds back a reward function to the voters that is a correspondingly weighted version of its own reward, incurs sublinear regret itself. As a by-product, we obtain a simple method that allows us to construct new no-regret algorithms out of known ones.
Ethnic Differences in the Degree of Morning Blood Pressure Surge and in Its Determinants Between Japanese and European Hypertensive Subjects: Data From the ARTEMIS Study

Morning blood pressure (BP) surge has been reported to be a prognostic factor for cardiovascular events. Its determinants are still poorly defined, however. In particular, it is not clear whether ethnic differences play a role in determining morning surge (MS) size. Aim of our study was to explore whether differences exist in the size of MS between Japanese and Western European hypertensive patients. We included 2887 untreated hypertensive patients (age 62.3±8.8 years) from a European ambulatory BP monitoring database and 811 hypertensive patients from a Japanese database (Jichi Medical School Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring WAVE1, age 72.3±9.8 years) following the same inclusion criteria. Their 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring recordings were analyzed focusing on MS. Sleep-trough MS was defined as the difference between mean systolic BP during the 2 hours after awakening and mean systolic BP during the 1-hour night period that included the lowest sleep BP level. The sleep-trough MS was higher in Japanese than in European hypertensive patients after adjusting for age and 24-hour mean BP levels (40.1 [95% confidence interval 39.0–41.2] versus 23.0 [22.4–23.5] mm Hg; P<0.001). This difference remained significant after accounting for differences in night-time BP dipping. Age was independently associated with MS in the Japanese database, but not in the European subjects. Our results for the first time show the occurrence of substantial ethnic differences in the degree of MS. These findings may help in understanding the role of ethnic factors in cardiovascular risk assessment and in identifying possible ethnicity-related differences in the most effective measures to be implemented for prevention of BP-related cardiovascular events.
Removal and Contraction Operations in nD Generalized Maps for Efficient Homology Computation

In this paper, we show that contraction operations preserve the homology of $n$D generalized maps, under some conditions. Removal and contraction operations are used to propose an efficient algorithm that compute homology generators of $n$D generalized maps. Its principle consists in simplifying a generalized map as much as possible by using removal and contraction operations. We obtain a generalized map having the same homology than the initial one, while the number of cells decreased significantly. Keywords: $n$D Generalized Maps; Cellular Homology; Homology Generators; Contraction and Removal Operations.
Secure and Eecient Metering

We consider an environment in which many servers serve an even larger number of clients (e.g. the web), and it is required to meter the interaction between servers and clients. More speci cally, it is desired to count the number of clients that were served by a server. A major possible application is to measure the popularity of web pages in order to decide on advertisement fees. The metering process must be very e cient and should not require extensive usage of any new communication channels. The metering should also be secure against fraud attempts by servers which in ate the number of their clients and against clients that attempt to disrupt the metering process. We suggest several secure and e cient constructions of metering systems, based on e cient cryptographic techniques. They are also very accurate and can preserve the privacy of the clients.
Circulating blood cells function as a surveillance system for damaged tissue in Drosophila larvae

Insects have an open circulatory system in which the heart pumps blood (hemolymph) into the body cavity, where it directly bathes the internal organs and epidermis. The blood contains free and tissue-bound immune cells that function in the inflammatory response. Here, we use live imaging of transgenic Drosophila larvae with fluorescently labeled blood cells (hemocytes) to investigate the circulatory dynamics of larval blood cells and their response to tissue injury. We find that, under normal conditions, the free cells rapidly circulate, whereas the tissue-bound cells are sessile. After epidermal wounding, tissue-bound cells around the wound site remain sessile and unresponsive, whereas circulating cells are rapidly recruited to the site of damage by adhesive capture. After capture, these cells distribute across the wound, appear phagocytically active, and are subsequently released back into circulation by the healing epidermis. The results demonstrate that circulating cells function as a surveillance system that monitors larval tissues for damage, and that adhesive capture, an important mechanism of recruitment of circulating cells to inflammatory sites in vertebrates, is shared by insects and vertebrates despite the vastly different architectures of their circulatory systems.
Vitamin D Supplementation in Young White and African American Women

There is limited information on the effects of vitamin D on serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) in young people and none on African Americans. The main objective of this trial was to measure the effect of different doses of vitamin D3 on serum 25OHD and serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) in young women with vitamin D insufficiency (serum 25OHD ≤ 20 ng/mL (50 nmol/L). A randomized double‐blind placebo‐controlled trial of vitamin D3 was conducted in young white and African American women, age 25 to 45 years. A total of 198 healthy white (60%) and African American (40%) women were randomly assigned to placebo, or to 400, 800, 1600, or 2400 IU of vitamin D3 daily. Calcium supplements were added to maintain a total calcium intake of 1000 to 1200 mg daily. The primary outcomes of the study were the final serum 25OHD and PTH levels at 12 months. The absolute increase in serum 25OHD with 400, 800, 1600, and 2400 IU of vitamin D daily was slightly greater in African American women than in white women. On the highest dose of 2400 IU/d, the mixed model predicted that mean 25OHD increased from baseline 12.4 ng/mL (95% confidence interval [CI], 9.2–15.7) to 43.2 ng/mL (95% CI, 38.2–48.1) in African American women and from 15.0 ng/mL (95% CI, 12.3–17.6) to 39.1 ng/mL (95% CI, 36.2–42.0) in white women. There was no significant effect of vitamin D dose on serum PTH in either race but there was a significant inverse relationship between final serum PTH and serum 25OHD. Serum 25OHD exceeded 20 ng/mL in 97.5% of whites on the 400 IU/d dose and between 800 and 1600 IU/d for African Americans. The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) suggested by the Institute of Medicine for young people is 600 IU daily. The increase in serum 25OHD after vitamin D supplementation was similar in young and old, and in white and African American women. © 2014 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
The effect of post-cure heating in autoclave, microwave oven and conventional oven on direct composite resin

Microhardness of composites has been related with degree of conversion, as differences in the organic matrix composition determine changes in polymerization dynamics. Post-cure heating is a process which the composite is submitted in order to enhance its properties, resulting in better restorations. This study evaluated the influence of the post-cure heating on the direct composite microhardness. Samples were made with Charisma and light cured with halogen lamp during 20 seconds. After, samples were submitted to one of the following post-cure methods: autoclave, microwave oven and conventional oven. It was created two controls: a negative control, that consisted of the use of the resin Charisma only light cured; and positive control group, formed by the indirect composite Targis. The Knoop microhardness was obtained after one week of storage and the results submitted to statistical analysis. The three proposed methods determined an increase on the microhardness of the direct composite when compared to the negative control (p 0,05). This study presents scientific evidence that post-cure heating enhances microhardness of restorative composite resins, suggesting that all others properties may be also enhanced. UNITERMS: composite; polymerization; heat; microhardness.
A Management Circuit with Upconversion Oscillation Technology for Electric-Field Energy Harvesting

Traditional LC resonance circuit can continuously and efficiently accumulate energy from the harvester at optimal impedance matching. Due to electric-field frequency (50 Hz, in China) and small equivalent capacitance (tens or hundreds of picofarads) of electric-field capacitive harvester, it is difficult to manufacture a huge transformer with a large inductance (>10 000 H) to optimally match the capacitive harvester. An upconversion oscillation circuit with a smaller size transformer around high-voltage power line is proposed to achieve efficient electric-field energy harvesting in this paper. The power-frequency output signal is transformed into higher frequency oscillation signal in the upconversion circuit consisting of the switch and the transformer. In this case, optimal impedance matching with the smaller size transformer is realized. Therefore, weak energy from harvester is fast accumulated into the storage capacitor by using the upconversion oscillation circuit. For a 10-kV power line, the upconversion maximum charging power reaches 663 μW in experiment. Due to optimal impedance matching in the upconversion oscillation circuit, the maximum harvesting efficiency is increased from 3% to 90.5%, compared with the traditional harvesting method. While the voltage across the storing capacitor is 3.26 V, the instantaneous discharge circuit can drive a wireless sensor node with an output power of 110 mW.
Unsupervised feature selection and category formation for mobile robot vision

This paper presents an unsupervised learning-based method for selection of feature points and object category formation without previous setting of the number of categories. For unsupervised object category formation, this method has the following features: detection of feature points and description of features using a Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), selection of target feature points using One Class-SVMs (OC-SVMs), generation of visual words using SOMs, formation of labels using ART-2, and creation and classification of categories on a category map of CPNs for visualizing spatial relations between categories. Classification results of static images using a Caltech-256 object category dataset and dynamic images using time-series images obtained using a robot according to movements respectively demonstrate that our method can visualize spatial relations of categories while maintaining time-series characteristics. Moreover, we emphasize the effectiveness of our method for category formation of appearance changes of objects.
Elastase and cathepsin G activities are present in immature bone marrow neutrophils and absent in late marrow and circulating neutrophils of beige (Chediak-Higashi) mice

Elicited peritoneal neutrophils of beige (Chediak-Higashi) mice essentially lack activities of the neutral serine proteinases elastase and cathepsin G, which may explain the increased susceptibility to infection of beige mice and Chediak-Higashi patients. We have examined neutrophils of beige mice at earlier points in their development to determine if the proteinase genes are never expressed or whether they are expressed and then lost during neutrophil maturation. Surprisingly, bone marrow of beige mice had significant elastase and cathepsin G activity (approximately 60% of normal). The results of several experiments indicate that neutrophils were the sole source of elastase and cathepsin G in bone marrow. Neutral proteinase activity was readily demonstrable by histochemical procedures in beige marrow neutrophil precursors up to and including the metamyelocyte stage. However, mature neutrophils of beige marrow had greatly decreased activity. Also mature neutrophils (PMNs) of the peripheral circulation, like peritoneal neutrophils, had very low elastase and cathepsin C activities. Thus we conclude that beige neutrophil precursors express neutral proteinase activity, which is largely and irreversibly depleted by the time they fully mature in marrow.
Hemispheric Specialization in Dogs for Processing Different Acoustic Stimuli

Considerable experimental evidence shows that functional cerebral asymmetries are widespread in animals. Activity of the right cerebral hemisphere has been associated with responses to novel stimuli and the expression of intense emotions, such as aggression, escape behaviour and fear. The left hemisphere uses learned patterns and responds to familiar stimuli. Although such lateralization has been studied mainly for visual responses, there is evidence in primates that auditory perception is lateralized and that vocal communication depends on differential processing by the hemispheres. The aim of the present work was to investigate whether dogs use different hemispheres to process different acoustic stimuli by presenting them with playbacks of a thunderstorm and their species-typical vocalizations. The results revealed that dogs usually process their species-typical vocalizations using the left hemisphere and the thunderstorm sounds using the right hemisphere. Nevertheless, conspecific vocalizations are not always processed by the left hemisphere, since the right hemisphere is used for processing vocalizations when they elicit intense emotion, including fear. These findings suggest that the specialisation of the left hemisphere for intraspecific communication is more ancient that previously thought, and so is specialisation of the right hemisphere for intense emotions.
A New Mutant Class, Made by Targeted Mutagenesis, of Phage PRD1 Reveals That Protein P5 Connects the Receptor Binding Protein to the Vertex

ABSTRACT Phage PRD1 and adenovirus share a number of structural and functional similarities, one of which is the vertex organization at the fivefold-symmetry positions. We developed an in vitro mutagenesis system for the linear PRD1 genome in order to make targeted mutations. The role of protein P5 in the vertex structure was examined by this method. Mutation in gene V revealed that protein P5 is essential. The absence of P5 did not compromise the particle assembly or DNA packaging but led to a deficient vertex structure where the receptor binding protein P2, in addition to protein P5, was missing. P5− particles also lost their DNA upon purification. Based on this and previously published information we propose a spatial model for the spike structure at the vertices. This resembles to the corresponding structure in adenovirus.
Analysis and design of a fully integrated IMT-Advanced/UWB dual-band LNA

A reconfigurable dual-band low noise amplifier (LNA) for 3.4–3.6 GHz IMT-Advanced and 4.2–4.8 GHz UWB systems is presented in this paper. Two different input matching networks with source-inductive-degeneration cascode configuration are used to switch at two different frequency bands. The parallel capacitors between the input MOSFETs' gate and source are used to optimize noise factor of the LNA. The LNA is designed in 0.13-μm CMOS process. Simulation results show that: In IMT-Advanced mode, NF<1.8 dB, S<inf>11</inf><−18 dB, S<inf>22</inf><−15.3 dB, S<inf>21</inf>>20.9 dB. In UWB mode, NF<2.3 dB, S<inf>11</inf><−15 dB, S<inf>22</inf><−14.5 dB, S<inf>21</inf>>19.2 dB, while dissipating 13.5 mA current from a 1.2 V supply. S<inf>12</inf> is less than −50 dB in both bands. The total chip area is 1×1.3 mm<sup>2</sup>.
Silicon Strength Testing for Mesoscale Structural Applications

The development of power MEMS, such as the Microengine being developed at MIT, requires highly stressed structures to achieve high power densities. Material strength is, therefore, a critical issue for the design of such devices. Due to the stochastic nature of the strength of brittle materials, the length scales of the test specimens should be close to those of the structure in order to avoid excessive extrapolation of the test data. In this paper, strength characterization and supporting analysis of mesoscale biaxial flexure and radiused hub flexure single crystal silicon specimens are presented. The Weibull reference strength' of planar biaxial flexure specimens was found to lie in the range 1.2 to 4.6 GPa, depending on the surface quality. The local strength at stress concentrations was obtained by testing radiused hub flexure specimens. For the case of deep reactive ion etched (DRIE) specimens, the strength at fillet radii was found to be significantly lower than that measured from planar biaxial flexure specimens due to the inferior surface quality in such regions. It was found that strength could be significantly increased by the introduction of an additional isotropic etch after the DRIE step. The test results reported herein have important implications for the development of highly stressed microfabricated structures. The sensitivity of the mechanical strength to surface processing and etching techniques must be accounted for in the design cycle, particular with regard to the selection of the appropriate fabrication route. Furthermore, in the design of highly stressed MEMS devices, it is important to account for the stochastic nature of the material strength.
Free vibration analysis of composite sandwich plates

Abstract The fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) composite materials configured as sandwich panels are finding increased usage in a variety of structural applications. An important facet in correct usage is an understanding of the dynamic behaviour of such structural configurations. This paper addresses the issue of natural frequencies of sandwich plate panels. The closed-form solutions are obtained using Reddy's first- and higher-order shear deformation theories. The approaches are validated against results from a standard, commercially available finite element analysis package. The paper concludes with a detailed investigation of the influence of variation in material property parameters and plate geometry variables on the natural frequency.
Morita equivalence and T-duality (or B versus Θ)

T-duality in M(atrix) theory has been argued to be realized as Morita equivalence in Yang-Mills theory on a non-commutative torus (NCSYM). Even though the two have the same structure group, they differ in their action since Morita equivalence makes crucial use of an additional modulus on the NCSYM side, the constant abelian magnetic background. In this paper, we reanalyze and clarify the correspondence between M(atrix) theory and NCSYM, and provide two resolutions of this puzzle. In the first of them, the standard map is kept and the extra modulus is ignored, but the anomalous transformation is offset by the M(atrix) theory ``rest term''. In the second, the standard map is modified so that the duality transformations agree, and a SO(d) symmetry is found to eliminate the spurious modulus. We argue that this is a true symmetry of supersymmetric Born-Infeld theory on a non-commutative torus, which allows to freely trade a constant magnetic background for non-commutativity of the base-space. We also obtain a BPS mass formula for this theory, invariant under T-duality, U-duality, and continuous SO(d) symmetry.
Optical Coherence Tomography heart tube image denoising based on contourlet transform

Optical Coherence Tomography(OCT) gradually becomes a very important imaging technology in the Biomedical field for its noninvasive, nondestructive and real-time properties. However, the interpretation and application of the OCT images are limited by the ubiquitous noise. In this paper, a denoising algorithm based on contourlet transform for the OCT heart tube image is proposed. A bivariate function is constructed to model the joint probability density function (pdt) of the coefficient and its cousin in contourlet domain. A bivariate shrinkage function is deduced to denoise the image by the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation. Three metrics, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and equivalent number of look (ENL), are used to evaluate the denoised image using the proposed algorithm. The results show that the signal-to-noise ratio is improved while the edges of object are preserved by the proposed algorithm. Systemic comparisons with other conventional algorithms, such as mean filter, median filter, RKT filter, Lee filter, as well as bivariate shrinkage function for wavelet-based algorithm are conducted. The advantage of the proposed algorithm over these methods is illustrated.