Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Internal Fatigue Failure Mechanism of High Strength Steels in Gigacycle Regime

Gigacycle fatigue behavior in high-strength steels tested under rotary bending fatigue was summarized in this paper. Characteristic of the very high cycle fatigue is to be caused the transition of fracture mode from surface-induced fracture to subsurface inclusion-induced one. In the vicinity of an inclusion at the origin of internal crack, granular-bright-facet (GBF) area was formed during extremely long fatigue cycles. It was pointed out that the formation of GBF area was an important factor for the control of the internal fatigue fracture in gigacycle regime. The GBF area revealed a very rough granular morphology compared with the area outside the GBF inside the fish-eye zone, and was related to the carbide distribution in the microstructure of the matrix. From the detailed observation of fracture surface and computer simulation by FRASTA method, the GBF area formation mechanism in a gigacycle fatigue regime was proposed as the ‘dispersive decohesion of spherical carbide model’.
Strawberry Phytochemicals Inhibit Azoxymethane/Dextran Sodium Sulfate-Induced Colorectal Carcinogenesis in Crj: CD-1 Mice

Human and experimental colon carcinogenesis are enhanced by a pro-inflammatory microenvironment. Pharmacologically driven chemopreventive agents and dietary variables are hypothesized to have future roles in the prevention of colon cancer by targeting these processes. The current study was designed to determine the ability of dietary lyophilized strawberries to inhibit inflammation-promoted colon carcinogenesis in a preclinical animal model. Mice were given a single i.p. injection of azoxymethane (10 mg kg−1 body weight). One week after injection, mice were administered 2% (w/v) dextran sodium sulfate in drinking water for seven days and then an experimental diet containing chemically characterized lyophilized strawberries for the duration of the bioassay. Mice fed control diet, or experimental diet containing 2.5%, 5.0% or 10.0% strawberries displayed tumor incidence of 100%, 64%, 75% and 44%, respectively (p < 0.05). The mechanistic studies demonstrate that strawberries reduced expression of proinflammatory mediators, suppressed nitrosative stress and decreased phosphorylation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, Akt, extracellular signal-regulated kinase and nuclear factor kappa B. In conclusion, strawberries target proinflammatory mediators and oncogenic signaling for the preventive efficacies against colon carcinogenesis in mice. This works supports future development of fully characterized and precisely controlled functional foods for testing in human clinical trials for this disease.
Adipose Differentiation Related Protein (ADRP) Expressed in Transfected COS-7 Cells Selectively Stimulates Long Chain Fatty Acid Uptake*

Adipose differentiation related protein (ADRP) is a 50-kDa novel protein cloned from a mouse 1246 adipocyte cDNA library, rapidly induced during adipocyte differentiation. We have examined ADRP function, and we show here that ADRP facilitates fatty acid uptake in COS cells transfected with ADRP cDNA. We demonstrate that uptake of long chain fatty acids was significantly stimulated in a time-dependent fashion in ADRP-expressing COS-7 cells compared with empty vector-transfected control cells. Oleic acid uptake velocity increased significantly in a dose-dependent manner in ADRP-expressing COS-7 cells compared with control cells. The transport K m was 0.051 μm, andV max was 57.97 pmol/105 cells/min in ADRP-expressing cells, and K m was 0.093 μm and V max was 20.13 pmol/105 cells/min in control cells. The oleate uptake measured at 4 °C was only 10% that at 37 °C. ADRP also stimulated uptake of palmitate and arachidonate but had no effect on uptake of medium chain fatty acid such as octanoic acid and glucose. These data suggest that ADRP specifically enhances uptake of long chain fatty acids by increasing the initial rate of uptake and provide novel information about ADRP function as a saturable transport component for long chain fatty acids.
Patterns of Hospital Performance in Acute Myocardial Infarction and Heart Failure 30-Day Mortality and Readmission

Background—In 2009, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is publicly reporting hospital-level risk-standardized 30-day mortality and readmission rates after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and heart failure (HF). We provide patterns of hospital performance, based on these measures. Methods and Results—We calculated the 30-day mortality and readmission rates for all Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries ages 65 years or older with a primary diagnosis of AMI or HF, discharged between July 2005 and June 2008. We compared weighted risk-standardized mortality and readmission rates across Hospital Referral Regions and hospital structural characteristics. The median 30-day mortality rate was 16.6% for AMI (range, 10.9% to 24.9%; 25th to 75th percentile, 15.8% to 17.4%; 10th to 90th percentile, 14.7% to 18.4%) and 11.1% for HF (range, 6.6% to 19.8%; 25th to 75th percentile, 10.3% to 12.0%; 10th to 90th percentile, 9.4% to 13.1%). The median 30-day readmission rate was 19.9% for AMI (range, 15.3% to 29.4%; 25th to 75th percentile, 19.5% to 20.4%; 10th to 90th percentile, 18.8% to 21.1%) and 24.4% for HF (range, 15.9% to 34.4%; 25th to 75th percentile, 23.4% to 25.6%; 10th to 90th percentile, 22.3% to 27.0%). We observed geographic differences in performance across the country. Although there were some differences in average performance by hospital characteristics, there were high and low hospital performers among all types of hospitals. Conclusions—In a recent 3-year period, 30-day risk-standardized mortality rates for AMI and HF varied among hospitals and across the country. The readmission rates were particularly high.
Double quantization forecasting method for filling missing data in the CATS time series

The double vector quantization forecasting method based on Kohonen self-organizing maps is applied to predict the missing values of the CATS competition data set. As one of the features of the method is the ability to predict vectors instead of scalar values in a single step, the compromise between the size of the vector prediction and the number of repetitions needed to reach the required prediction horizon is studied. The long-term stability of the double vector quantization method makes it possible to obtain reliable values on a rather long-term forecasting horizon.
50 years in the development of polymer suspension-type insulators

¿Polymer¿ is used in this article, but often ¿nonceramic¿ or ¿composite¿ is used in place of ¿polymer. ¿ So, polymer insulators are synonymous with nonceramic or composite insulators. This article focuses on the development of suspension-type polymer insulators, used on overhead distribution and transmission lines, and on the present-day issues that limit their greater use.
Locus of Inhibition in the Masked Priming of Response Alternatives

Abstract Masked prime stimuli presented immediately before target stimuli in a choice reaction task give rise to behavioral costs when the primes and the target stimuli are mapped to the same response and result in benefits when they are mapped to opposite responses. Researchers assume that this negative compatibility effect reflects inhibitory processes in the control of perceptuomotor links. The authors investigated whether the inhibition operates at the level of abstract central codes or at effector-specific motor stages. In 2 experiments (N = 8 participants in each), left or right hand or foot responses were required to target stimuli that were preceded by masked arrow primes mapped to the same response side as the target stimuli in compatible trials and to the opposite response side in incompatible trials; the primes were irrelevant in neutral trials. In Experiment 1, when the masked primes determined both response side and modality, there was no transfer of negative compatibility effects across response modalities. That finding is inconsistent with a central abstract locus of inhibition and suggests that inhibition operates at effector-specific motor stages. In Experiment 2, primes conveyed only response side information but left response modality uncertain, and negative compatibility effects were elicited for both hand and foot responses, suggesting that partially informative masked primes can trigger a parallel activation and subsequent inhibition of response processes within separate effector systems.
Isolation, plasmid profiling and antibiogram of Salmonella from poultry meat and environmental sources

Salmonella is an important zoonotic pathogen and its prevalence in the animals acts as a continuous threat to man. The present study was carried out to report the isolation along with the serotypes, phage types and antibiogram pattern of Salmonella among poultry meat and environmental sources in the India. A total of two hundred samples from poultry meat (100), poultry feaces (100) were processed for the isolation of Salmonella. All the isolates were subjected to antibiogram studies against 16 antimicrobials. Representative isolates of isolated Salmonella were phage typed. Out of two hundred samples only three (one poultry meat and two poultry feaces) were positive for Salmonella. The confirmed isolates were subjected to serotyping at National Salmonella Centre (Vet), India. The results indicated that S. Rough was found in poultry meat and S. Typhimurium and S. Berta was found in poultry feaces. A plasmid of 21 kb was consistence in all the isolates. All the isolates obtained in the present study were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing against 16 different antibiotics employing disk diffusion technique in which ampicillin and sulphafurazole showed 100% resistance in comparison to furazolidone. On the other hand all isolates were sensitive to nalidixic acid. Highest level of antimicrobial resistance was recorded for isolates from poultry feaces. Fifty percent or more resistance was observed among these isolates for as many as 5 antimicrobials including sulphafurazole (100%), colistin (100%), ampicillin (100%), co-trimaxazole (50%) and furazolidone (50%).
Ipsilateral connections of the ventral premotor cortex in a new world primate

The present study describes the pattern of connections of the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) with various cortical regions of the ipsilateral hemisphere in adult squirrel monkeys. Particularly, we 1) quantified the proportion of inputs and outputs that the PMv distal forelimb representation shares with other areas in the ipsilateral cortex and 2) defined the pattern of PMv connections with respect to the location of the distal forelimb representation in primary motor cortex (M1), primary somatosensory cortex (S1), and supplementary motor area (SMA). Intracortical microstimulation techniques (ICMS) were used in four experimentally naïve monkeys to identify M1, PMv, and SMA forelimb movement representations. Multiunit recording techniques and myelin staining were used to identify the S1 hand representation. Then, biotinylated dextran amine (BDA; 10,000 MW) was injected in the center of the PMv distal forelimb representation. After tangential sectioning, the distribution of BDA‐labeled cell bodies and terminal boutons was documented. In M1, labeling followed a rostrolateral pattern, largely leaving the caudomedial M1 unlabeled. Quantification of somata and terminals showed that two areas share major connections with PMv: M1 and frontal areas immediately rostral to PMv, designated as frontal rostral area (FR). Connections with this latter region have not been described previously. Moderate connections were found with PMd, SMA, anterior operculum, and posterior operculum/inferior parietal area. Minor connections were found with diverse areas of the precentral and parietal cortex, including S1. No statistical difference between the proportions of inputs and outputs for any location was observed, supporting the reciprocity of PMv intracortical connections. J. Comp. Neurol. 495:374–390, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Low-cost microwave security camera system

Microwave-based security camera systems have been implemented using different types of instruments to attain a real time, high resolution image representing dangerous concealed carry-on objects on people. Some designs achieved this goal but at a very high manufacturing cost that made them impractical as well as unfeasible. Moreover, such designs were made of a single receiver that led to loss of some important information. Therefore, the development of a two-dimensional microwave camera system at lower cost and high resolution is necessary. The main objective of this paper is to design, build, and test a high resolution, real-time low-cost camera system for security purposes. Furthermore, the proposed system addresses the development of a two-dimensional microwave imaging system that reveals the internal layers of non-transparent objects, based on the differences in dielectric constant of different materials. The objective is achieved by analyzing previous designs of microwave cameras to propose a cheaper system, which is implemented.
Capillary perfusion of the rat brain cortex. An in vivo confocal microscopy study.

Confocal laser-scanning microscopy was used to visualize subsurface cerebral microvessels labeled with intravascular fluorescein in a closed cranial window model of the anesthetized rat. In noninvasive optical sections up to 250 microns beneath the brain surface, plasma perfusion and blood cell perfusion of individual capillaries were studied. Under resting conditions, in all cerebral capillaries the presence of plasma flow as demonstrated by the appearance of an intravenously injected fluorescent tracer within 20 seconds after injection. Plasma flow was verified even in capillaries that contained stationary erythrocytes or leukocytes; 91.1% of the capillaries contained flowing blood cells, 5.2% contained stationary blood cells, and no blood cells were seen in 3.6%. Mean blood cell velocity was 498.3 +/- 443.9 microns/s, and the mean blood cell supply rate was 35.75 +/- 28.01 cells per second. When capillaries were continuously observed for 1 minute, "on" and "off" periods of blood cell flow were noted. During hypercapnia (increase of PCO2 from 33.25 to 50.26 mm Hg), mean blood cell flux increased from 38.6 +/- 17.2 to 55.5 +/- 12.2 per second (P < .005, paired t test of mean values in six animals), and blood cell velocity increased from 519.5 +/- 254.8 to 828.5 +/- 460.8 microns/s (P = .074, paired t test of mean values in six animals). Homogeneity of blood cell flux increased as indicated by the coefficient of variation decreasing from 44.6% to 22.0%, and the portion of poorly perfused capillaries (blood cell flux, < 40 per second) decreased from 59.2% to 22.4%. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A Bargaining Theory-Based Conflict Resolution Method in Design for Remanufacturing

In order to solve the potential conflict problem of product design factor optimization in design for remanufacturing, an idea to transform design conflict problem into mathematical model based on game theory was proposed. In the process of design for remanufacturing, a bargaining theory-based conflict resolution method was established by improving the theory of Nash-Zesen bargaining. Energy consumption and cost were analyzed by the given conflict resolution method, and the validity of the method was verified.
A High-Performance , Hierarchical Decoupled Architecture 1

This paper presents a novel, high-performance decoupled architecture called the HiDISC 1 (Hierarchical Decoupled Instruction Stream Computer). The HiDISC provides high performance for loop-based scientific programs by exploiting instruction-level parallelism and improving memory system peformance by providing decoupled prefetching. In this paper, we present the HiDISC architeture, a sample program to show how the architecture works, and simulation results for nine scientific benchmarks and one symbolic benchmark. The performance advantage of the HiDISC architecture increases as the miss penalty gets larger relative to processor cycles, making it an attractive architecture as the difference between processor speed and DRAM speed grows exponentially.
Acoustic Properties of the Kuman Voiceless Velar Lateral Fricative

Selected timeand frequency-domain acoustic features of the voiceless allophone of the exotic velar lateral fricative in the Papuan language Kuman are described for one male speaker. This comprises specification of F-pattern and its co-articulation with the preceding vowel, and the articulatory interpretation of spectrographic details, including a (for fricatives) unexpected transient.
A general algorithm for subtree similarity-search

Determining similarity between trees is an important problem in a variety of areas. The subtree similarity-search problem is that of finding, given a tree Q and a large set of trees Γ = {T1; . ; Tn}, the subtrees of trees among Γ that are most similar to Q. Similarity is defined using some tree distance function. While subtree similarity-search has been studied in the past, solutions mostly focused on specific tree distance functions, and were usually applicable only to ordered trees. This paper presents an efficient new algorithm that solves the subtree similarity-search problem, and is compatible with a wide family of tree distance functions (for both ordered and unordered trees). Extensive experimentation confirms the efficiency and scalability of the algorithm, which displays consistently good runtime even for large queries and datasets.
Electrophysiological Evidence for Early Contextual Influences during Spoken-Word Recognition: N200 Versus N400 Effects

An event-related brain potential experiment was carried out to investigate the time course of contextual influences on spoken-word recognition. Subjects were presented with spoken sentences that ended with a word that was either (a) congruent, (b) semantically anomalous, but beginning with the same initial phonemes as the congruent completion, or (c) semantically anomalous beginning with phonemes that differed from the congruent completion. In addition to finding an N400 effect in the two semantically anomalous conditions, we obtained an early negative effect in the semantically anomalous condition where word onset differed from that of the congruent completions. It was concluded that the N200 effect is related to the lexical selection process, where word-form information resulting from an initial phonological analysis and content information derived from the context interact.
ZipA is a MAP–Tau homolog and is essential for structural integrity of the cytokinetic FtsZ ring during bacterial cell division

The first visible event in prokaryotic cell division is the assembly of the soluble, tubulin‐like FtsZ GTPase into a membrane‐associated cytokinetic ring that defines the division plane in bacterial and archaeal cells. In the temperature‐sensitive ftsZ84 mutant of Escherichia coli, this ring assembly is impaired at the restrictive temperature causing lethal cell filamentation. Here I present genetic and morphological evidence that a 2‐fold higher dosage of the division gene zipA suppresses thermosensitivity of the ftsZ84 mutant by stabilizing the labile FtsZ84 ring structure in vivo. I demonstrate that purified ZipA promotes and stabilizes protofilament assembly of both FtsZ and FtsZ84 in vitro and cosediments with the protofilaments. Furthermore, ZipA organizes FtsZ protofilaments into arrays of long bundles or sheets that probably represent the physiological organization of the FtsZ ring in bacterial cells. The N‐terminal cytoplasmic domain of membrane‐anchored ZipA contains sequence elements that resemble the microtubule‐binding signature motifs in eukaryotic Tau, MAP2 and MAP4 proteins. It is postulated that the MAP–Tau‐homologous motifs in ZipA mediate its binding to FtsZ, and that FtsZ–ZipA interaction represents an ancient prototype of the protein–protein interaction that enables MAPs to suppress microtubule catastrophe and/or to promote rescue.
Identification of an immunodominant and highly immunopathogenic determinant in the retinal interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP)

Interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP), a glycoprotein specific for the retina and pineal gland, induces inflammatory changes in these two organs in immunized animals. We report here on the identification of an immunodominant determinant of bovine IRBP that is highly immunogenic and immunopathogenic in the Lewis rat. The peptide, which comprises the sequence 1169-1191 of bovine IRBP, was shown to be immunodominant by its capacity to stimulate lymphocytes sensitized against whole IRBP. A comparison was made between peptide 1169-1191 and another peptide, 1158-1180, which is nondominant but is immunogenic and immunopathogenic in the Lewis rat. Peptide 1169-1191 was found to be superior in its immunological capacities; the minimal dose of 1169-1191 needed to induce cellular immune response or disease in Lewis rats (0.02-0.1 nmol/rat) is congruent to 1,000 times smaller than that of 1158-1180. In addition, unlike the ocular disease induced by 1158-1180, the disease produced by 1169-1191 resembled that induced by whole IRBP in its kinetics and histopathological features. The immunological activity of 1169-1191 in the Lewis rat was localized to the 10 residues at the COOH terminus; no such activity was exhibited by the truncated peptide 1169-1188, which comprises the 20 residues at the NH2 terminus of the full peptide. The usefulness of this unique experimental system in analyzing the role of immunodominance in peptide immunogenicity and immunopathogenicity is underscored.
Optimization of electrospun fibrous membranes for in vitro modeling of blood-brain barrier

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) plays a critical role in brain homeostasis at the cellular and global level. Mimicking the selective permeability and transport properties of the BBB to specific molecules and cells remains a significant challenge towards the development of a physiologically relevant in vitro BBB model. In this study, we developed electrospun poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) copolymer membranes that supported different cellular components of the neurovascular unit including human-derived endothelial cells, pericytes and astrocytes. Comparative analyses of thickness, morphology, biocompatibility and permeability of membranes were also conducted. We found that collagen coated 4%PEG-96%PCL membranes supported the growth of a confluent and tight endothelium confirmed by transendothelial electrical resistance measurements (TEER). Based on fabrication process and reported results, we finally discuss the adoption of these electrospun fiber membranes for in vitro and on-a-chip human BBB models.