Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thermodynamics on Control of Inclusions Composition in Ultraclean Steels

The relations among the compositions of inclusion, steel and top slag were thermodynamically studied at 1823 K in tire cord, valve spring, ultra low carbon sheet, bearing and sulfur free-machining steels. In case of a tire cord and valve spring steels, the equilibrium among inclusion, steel and top slag was found to be established in practice with respect to Si and Mn. The contents of Si, O and Ca in an ultra low carbon sheet steel were determined as a functin of top slag composition, and the higher oxygen contents observed in practice were explained by the effect of FetO in slag. Themodynamic discussion was made for the formation of spinel inclusions in a bearing steel and the precipitation of CaS in a sulfur free-machining steel.
Practical Physics for Articulated Characters

This presentation describes a set of techniques for implementing a fast and stable dynamics simulator for articulated characters using an analytical constraint approach combined with Featherstone’s linear-time forward dynamics algorithm. It presents an efficient method for enforcing multiple simultaneous constraints on an articulated character in order to control the character’s motion and model its interactions with the environment. The technique described employs an optimized process derived from Featherstone’s recursive algorithm to form a linear system representing the constraint conditions at each time instant of the simulation. The system is subsequently solved to compute the exact magnitude of the forces necessary to satisfy these constraints. This work demonstrates how a combination of unilateral and bilateral constraints can be used to model the effects of impacts and contacts, to enforce joint limits, and to accurately control limb motion through trajectory following. The algorithms are presented from a practical standpoint and pseudocode is provided to facilitate their implementation. The goal of this presentation is twofold: first, to convince developers that building a practical, stable, real-time physics simulator for articulated characters is a tractable problem, and second, to give them enough confidence and information to start building one for their game.
Sensitivity of Conventional and Non-destructive Characterization Techniques to Recovery and Recrystallization

The sensitivity and limitations of magnetic coercive ﬁeld, hardness, metallographic measurements and electron back scattered diffraction analysis are studied and discussed in terms of monitoring recovery and the onset and evolution of recrystallization in a cold rolled low carbon steel. The magnetic coercive ﬁeld shows much higher resolution than hardness measurements when measuring recovery. Hardness is almost insensitive to the microstructural changes taking place in the material during annealing treatments performed at low temperatures. The conditions under which the magnetic coercive ﬁeld measurements can also be used to monitor recrystallized fraction are also discussed.
Microphone Arrays and Neural Networks for Robust Speech Recognition

This paper explores use of synergistically-integrated systems of microphone arrays and neural networks for robust speech recognition in variable acoustic environments, where the user must not be encumbered by microphone equipment. Existing speech recognizers work best for "high-quality close-talking speech. " Performance of these recognizers is typically degraded by environmental interference and mismatch in training conditions and testing conditions. It is found that use of microphone arrays and neural network processors can elevate the recognition performance of existing speech recognizers in an adverse acoustic environment, thus avoiding the need to retrain the recognizer, a complex and tedious task. We also present results showing that a system of microphone arrays and neural networks can achieve a higher word recognition accuracy in an unmatched training/testing condition than that obtained with a retrained speech recognizer using array speech for both training and testing, i.e., a matched training/testing condition.
Determining the Multiword Expression Inventory of a Surprise Language

Much previous research on multiword expressions (MWEs) has focused on the token- and type-level tasks of MWE identification and extraction, respectively. Such studies typically target known prevalent MWE types in a given language. This paper describes the first attempt to learn the MWE inventory of a “surprise” language for which we have no explicit prior knowledge of MWE patterns, certainly no annotated MWE data, and not even a parallel corpus. Our proposed model is trained on a treebank with MWE relations of a source language, and can be applied to the monolingual corpus of the surprise language to identify its MWE construction types.
Relevance of long-lived CD8+ T effector memory cells for protective immunity elicited by heterologous prime-boost vaccination

Owing to the importance of major histocompatibility complex class Ia-restricted CD8+ T cells for host survival following viral, bacterial, fungal, or parasitic infection, it has become largely accepted that these cells should be considered in the design of a new generation of vaccines. For the past 20 years, solid evidence has been provided that the heterologous prime-boost regimen achieves the best results in terms of induction of long-lived protective CD8+ T cells against a variety of experimental infections. Although this regimen has often been used experimentally, as is the case for many vaccines, the mechanism behind the efficacy of this vaccination regimen is still largely unknown. The main purpose of this review is to examine the characteristics of the protective CD8+ T cells generated by this vaccination regimen. Part of its efficacy certainly relies on the generation and maintenance of large numbers of specific lymphocytes. Other specific characteristics may also be important, and studies on this direction have only recently been initiated. So far, the characterization of these protective, long-lived T cell populations suggests that there is a high frequency of polyfunctional T cells; these cells cover a large breadth and display a T effector memory (TEM) phenotype. These TEM cells are capable of proliferating after an infectious challenge and are highly refractory to apoptosis due to a control of the expression of pro-apoptotic receptors such as CD95. Also, they do not undergo significant long-term immunological erosion. Understanding the mechanisms that control the generation and maintenance of the protective activity of these long-lived TEM cells will certainly provide important insights into the physiology of CD8+ T cells and pave the way for the design of new or improved vaccines.
Crystallization Kinetics for PP/EPDM/Nano-CaCO3 Composites – The Influence of Nanoparticles Distribution

Abstract The primary aim of this paper is to provide an insight on the effect of the distribution of calcium carbonate nanoparticles (nano-CaCO3) on the isothermal crystallization kinetics in Polypropylene (PP)/ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer (EPDM)/nano-CaCO3 composites prepared by different compounding procedures. PP/EPDM/CaCO3 composites were prepared by two compounding procedures (direct compounding: mixed all three solid materials together; multistep compounding: the melted EPDM/CaCO3 master batch in a single screw extruder blended with melted PP in twin-screw extruder via injecting into the twin-screw extruder from a lateral port at the melting section of the twin-screw extruder). Morphological observation showed that abundant CaCO3 particles concentrated around EPDM dispersed phase in the multistep compounding composite, essentially different from the respectively dispersed morphology of CaCO3 particles and EPDM domains in the matrix for the direct compounding composite. Moreover, better dispersion of CaCO3 particles in the multistep compounding composite was observed comparing to the direct compounding composite. Futhermore, a pronounced improvement of the crystallization half time (t1/2), rate of crystallization (G) was achieved in the multistep compounding composite, which may originate from the better dispersion of CaCO3 particles providing larger nucleation density and the collaborative nucleation of EPDM and CaCO3 during the isothermal crystallization.
Systematic analysis of cyclic di‐GMP signalling enzymes and their role in biofilm formation and virulence in Yersinia pestis

Cyclic di‐GMP (c‐di‐GMP) is a signalling molecule that governs the transition between planktonic and biofilm states. Previously, we showed that the diguanylate cyclase HmsT and the putative c‐di‐GMP phosphodiesterase HmsP inversely regulate biofilm formation through control of HmsHFRS‐dependent poly‐β‐1,6‐N‐acetylglucosamine synthesis. Here, we systematically examine the functionality of the genes encoding putative c‐di‐GMP metabolic enzymes in Yersinia pestis. We determine that, in addition to hmsT and hmsP, only the gene y3730 encodes a functional enzyme capable of synthesizing c‐di‐GMP. The seven remaining genes are pseudogenes or encode proteins that do not function catalytically or are not expressed. Furthermore, we show that HmsP has c‐di‐GMP‐specific phosphodiesterase activity. We report that a mutant incapable of c‐di‐GMP synthesis is unaffected in virulence in plague mouse models. Conversely, an hmsP mutant, unable to degrade c‐di‐GMP, is defective in virulence by a subcutaneous route of infection due to poly‐β‐1,6‐N‐acetylglucosamine overproduction. This suggests that c‐di‐GMP signalling is not only dispensable but deleterious for Y. pestis virulence. Our results show that a key event in the evolution of Y. pestis from the ancestral Yersinia pseudotuberculosis was a significant reduction in the complexity of its c‐di‐GMP signalling network likely resulting from the different disease cycles of these human pathogens.
Host Identity Protocol (HIP) Architecture

This memo describes a snapshot of the reasoning behind a proposed new namespace, the Host Identity namespace, and a new protocol layer, the Host Identity Protocol (HIP), between the internetworking and transport layers. Herein are presented the basics of the current namespaces, their strengths and weaknesses, and how a new namespace will add completeness to them. The roles of this new namespace in the protocols are defined. The memo describes the thinking of the authors as of Fall 2003. The architecture may have evolved since. This document represents one stable point in that evolution of understanding. This memo provides information for the Internet community.
Exploring mischief and mayhem in social computing or: how we learned to stop worrying and love the trolls

In this paper, we explore the role of mischief as borderline socially acceptable behaviour within social computing applications. Mischievous activity pushes the boundaries of the implicit social contract present in all online social systems, and, we argue, is of vital importance understanding online social interactions. Using examples from games and other applications, we explore mischief as an act of appropriation, which reinterprets mechanics defined by developers in unexpected and sometimes upsetting ways. Although frequently interpreted as negative and anti-social behaviour, we argue that mischief serves a vital social role, and find surprising richness in the chaos.
Automatic browsing of large pictures on mobile devices

Pictures have become increasingly common and popular in mobile communications. However, due to the limitation of mobile devices, there is a need to develop new technologies to facilitate the browsing of large pictures on the small screen. In this paper, we propose a novel approach which is able to automate the scrolling and navigation of a large picture with a minimal amount of user interaction on mobile devices. An image attention model is employed to illustrate the information structure within an image. An optimal image browsing path is then calculated based on the image attention model to simulate the human browsing behaviors. Experimental evaluations of the proposed mechanism indicate that our approach is an effective way for viewing large images on small displays.
Simple Pre-Provisioning Scheme to Enable Fast Restoration

Supporting fast restoration for general mesh topologies with minimal network over-build is a technically challenging problem. Traditionally, ring-based SONET networks have offered close to 50 ms restoration at the cost of requiring 100% over-build. Recently, fast (local) reroute has gained momentum in the context of MPLS networks. Fast reroute, when combined with pre-provisioning of protection capacities and bypass tunnels, enables faster restoration times in mesh networks. Pre-provisioning has the additional advantage of greatly simplifying network routing and signaling. Thus, even for protected connections, online routing can now be oblivious to the offered protection, and may only involve single shortest path computations. In this paper, we are interested in the problem of reserving the least amount of the network capacity for protection, while guaranteeing fast (local) reroute-based restoration for all the supported connections. We show that the problem is NP-complete, and we present efficient approximation algorithms for the problem. The solution output by our algorithms is guaranteed to use at most twice the protection capacity, compared to any optimal solution. These guarantees are provided even when the protection is for multiple link failures. In addition, the total amount of protection capacity reserved by these algorithms is just a small fraction of the amount reserved by existing ring-based schemes (e.g., SONET), especially on dense networks. The presented algorithms are computationally efficient, and can even be implemented on the network elements. Our simulation, on some standard core networks, show that our algorithms work well in practice as well
Tests of rRNA hybridization to microarrays suggest that hybridization characteristics of oligonucleotide probes for species discrimination cannot be predicted

Hybridization of rRNAs to microarrays is a promising approach for prokaryotic and eukaryotic species identification. Typically, the amount of bound target is measured by fluorescent intensity and it is assumed that the signal intensity is directly related to the target concentration. Using thirteen different eukaryotic LSU rRNA target sequences and 7693 short perfect match oligonucleotide probes, we have assessed current approaches for predicting signal intensities by comparing Gibbs free energy (ΔG°) calculations to experimental results. Our evaluation revealed a poor statistical relationship between predicted and actual intensities. Although signal intensities for a given target varied up to 70-fold, none of the predictors were able to fully explain this variation. Also, no combination of different free energy terms, as assessed by principal component and neural network analyses, provided a reliable predictor of hybridization efficiency. We also examined the effects of single-base pair mismatch (MM) (all possible types and positions) on signal intensities of duplexes. We found that the MM effects differ from those that were predicted from solution-based hybridizations. These results recommend against the application of probe design software tools that use thermodynamic parameters to assess probe quality for species identification. Our results imply that the thermodynamic properties of oligonucleotide hybridization are by far not yet understood.
The cost-effectiveness of screening for chronic hepatitis B infection in the United States.

BACKGROUND Hepatitis B virus (HBV) continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality in the United States. Current guidelines suggest screening populations with a prevalence of ≥2%. Our objective was to determine whether this screening threshold is cost-effective and whether screening lower-prevalence populations might also be cost-effective. METHODS We developed a Markov state transition model to examine screening of asymptomatic outpatients in the United States. The base case was a 35-year-old man living in a region with an HBV infection prevalence of 2%. Interventions (versus no screening) included screening for Hepatitis B surface antigen followed by treatment of appropriate patients with (1) pegylated interferon-α2a for 48 weeks, (2) a low-cost nucleoside or nucleotide agent with a high rate of developing viral resistance for 48 weeks, (3) prolonged treatment with low-cost, high-resistance nucleoside or nucleotide, or (4) prolonged treatment with a high-cost nucleoside or nucleotide with a low rate of developing viral resistance. Effectiveness was measured in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and costs in 2008 US dollars. RESULTS Screening followed by treatment with a low-cost, high-resistance nucleoside or nucleotide was cost-effective ($29,230 per QALY). Sensitivity analyses revealed that screening costs <$50,000 per QALY in extremely low-risk populations unless the prevalence of chronic HBV infection is <. 3%. CONCLUSIONS The 2% threshold for prevalence of chronic HBV infection in current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/US Public Health Service screening guidelines is cost-effective. Furthermore, screening of adults in the United States in lower-prevalence populations (eg, as low as .3%) also is likely to be cost-effective, suggesting that current health policy should be reconsidered.
Tc-99m MDP uptake in a calcified untreated non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of spleen.

Calcification in untreated Hodgkin's or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is very rare. It is seen only after either radiation or chemotherapy. Three cases of calcified malignant lymphoma have been previously described in the literature. This report may be the first to describe Tc-99m MDP bone imaging and CT scanning of a calcified non-Hodgkin's lymphoma involving the spleen.
Performance measurement framework for hierarchical text classification

Hierarchical text classification or simply hierarchical classification refers to assigning a document to one or more suitable categories from a hierarchical category space. In our literature survey, we have found that the existing hierarchical classification experiments used a variety of measures to evaluate performance. These performance measures often assume independence between categories and do not consider documents misclassified into categories that are similar or not far from the correct categories in the category tree. In this paper, we therefore propose new performance measures for hierarchical classification. The proposed performance measures consist of category similarity measures and distance-based measures that consider the contributions of misclassified documents. Our experiments on hierarchical classification methods based on SVM classifiers and binary Naive Bayes classifiers showed that SVM classifiers perform better than Naive Bayes classifiers on Reuters-21578 collection according to the extended measures. A new classifier-centric measure called blocking measure is also defined to examine the performance of subtree classifiers in a top-down level-based hierarchical classification method.
Cooperative Redundancy Elimination in Data Center Networks with Wireless Cards at Routers

We consider architecture of data center networks (DCN), which adds wireless network card to each router [1 -- 3]. Existing redundancy elimination (RE) mechanisms reduce link loads and increase network capacity in several environments by removing strings that have appeared in earlier packets through encoding and decode them several hops downstream. This article is the first to explore RE mechanisms in large-scale DCNs, and the first to exploit cooperative RE among servers. We describe a centralized REDaCeN (RE in DCNs) algorithm, which greedily and repeatedly selects to cache data unit with the largest caching utility among routers with remaining capacity. We show that approximation ratio of REDaCeN is high through our simulation. We then discuss distributed implementation of REDaCen based on the observation that servers and routers are physically close and within transmission range of each other. Servers and routers update their status in a single wireless transmission, using an efficient prioritized schedule. We also address cache replacement and consistency of information in servers and routers. Our framework is tested on different parameters and shows superior performance in comparison to other mechanisms (imported directly to this setting).
Lower level of endogenous dopamine in patients with cocaine dependence: findings from PET imaging of D(2)/D(3) receptors following acute dopamine depletion.

OBJECTIVE Previous positron emission tomography (PET) imaging studies have demonstrated that cocaine dependence is associated with a decrease in dopamine type 2 and 3 (D(2)/D(3)) receptor binding in cocaine-dependent individuals relative to healthy comparison subjects. However, given the nature of PET imaging, it is possible that the measured decrease in radiotracer binding results from an increase in baseline dopamine levels. The purpose of this study was to measure D(2)/D(3) receptors following acute dopamine depletion in cocaine-dependent volunteers relative to healthy comparison subjects. METHOD Cocaine-dependent volunteers (N=15) and healthy matched comparison subjects (N=15) were scanned using PET, with the dopamine receptor radiotracer [(11)C]raclopride, at baseline and again following acute depletion of endogenous dopamine via alpha-methyl-para-tyrosine (AMPT) administration. Changes in radiotracer binding were measured in the subdivisions of the striatum (caudate, putamen, and ventral striatum) in addition to the striatum as a whole. RESULTS Findings revealed that cocaine-dependent volunteers exhibited lower levels of endogenous dopamine relative to comparison subjects, which was measured as an increase in [(11)C]raclopride binding following AMPT administration. The increase in [(11)C]raclopride binding in the striatum was 11.1% (SD=4.4%) in healthy comparison subjects and 5.7% (SD=5.9%) in cocaine-dependent volunteers. Similar differences were seen in the subdivisions of the striatum. CONCLUSIONS The decrease in striatal D(2)/D(3 )receptors associated with cocaine dependence cannot be attributed to higher levels of endogenous dopamine.
Microstructure morphology of no-clean lead-free solder alloys used in automotive industry

Under the current conditions of reducing manufacturing costs and complying with the RoHS 2 EU Recast Directive in the automotive industry, without compromising functionality and reliability, it has become necessary to create a new Lead-Free Solder Pastes family [1]. Mechanical and thermal solder joints functionalities are determined by the microstructure morphology. In this respect, the paper presents the phases morphology as function of cooling rate in Vapour Phase Soldering Process (VPSP), for three alloys coming from the solder pastes: ALPHA® OM-6106 (Sn62), ALPHA® OM-340 (InnoLot) and ALPHA® OM-535 (SBX02). The presented work extends the theoretical studies and experiments upon phase morphology in VPSP, in order to optimize soldering process of automotive electronic modules. The results could be extend for home and modern agriculture appliances industry [2].