Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PLA/clay/wood nanocomposites: nanoclay effects on mechanical and thermal properties

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/clay/wood nanocomposites were prepared by melt extrusion of PLA, nanoclay, and wood flour (WF). The clay particles exhibit an intercalated structure in the PLA matrix and the addition of WF slightly increases the spacing in the galleries of the intercalated structure. The intercalated clay particles and WF in the PLA matrix restrict the motion of the PLA molecules and crystals. The tensile and flexural moduli of PLA/clay/wood nanocomposites with 30 wt% WF, respectively, increase from 3.75 to 7.08 GPa and from 3.83 to 6.01 GPa compared to neat PLA by adding up to 5 wt% nanoclay. Voids around clay particles, observed via scanning electron microscopy are associated with the negative effect of the clay particles on the interfacial adhesion between the WF and the PLA matrix. Clay particles improve the thermal decomposition temperature (T d) of PLA/clay/wood nanocomposites by about 10°C compared to that of PLA/wood composites. The effects of clay particles on other thermal properties such as glass transition temperature (Tg), melting temperature (Tm), and linear thermal expansion are also discussed in this article.
FieldGuide: Smartwatches in a Multi-display Museum Environment

Deciding on what to see in a large museum can be overwhelming. We present FieldGuide, a smartwatch based system designed to facilitate museum gallery exploration. We discuss our design and implementation, followed by an evaluation conducted with twelve visitors in a natural history museum. Our findings describe how smartwatches can fit into a multi-display museum environment and strike a balance between personal and public interactions.
CoMex - A Mechanism for Coordination of Task Execution in Group Work

CoMex (Coordination Mechanism) is a system to coordinate the execution of tasks accessing coordinable entities. It uses coordination rules to describe the temporal and logical order of tasks performed in a cooperative work setting. These rules coordinate semantic dependencies between work activities carried out by different users. The coordination rules are implemented in a relational database. This makes CoMex unique and easy to integrate into an existing application. By illustrating a case from a real work setting we show how these rules can be created, which methodology can be applied for their production and how CoMex can be used in a web application. We also describe the implementation of CoMex and its architecture.
Biodegradable and Biocompatible Systems Based on Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles

Composites of hydroxyapatite (HAp) are widely employed in biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility, bioactivity and osteoconductivity properties. In fact, the development of industrially scalable hybrids at low cost and high efficiency has a great impact, for example, on bone tissue engineering applications and even as drug delivery systems. New nanocomposites constituted by HAp nanoparticles and synthetic or natural polymers with biodegradable and biocompatible characteristics have constantly been developed and extensive works have been published concerning their applications. The present review is mainly focused on both the capability of HAp nanoparticles to encapsulate diverse compounds as well as the preparation methods of scaffolds incorporating HAp. Attention has also been paid to the recent developments on antimicrobial scaffolds, bioactive membranes, magnetic scaffolds, in vivo imaging systems, hydrogels and coatings that made use of HAp nanoparticles.
First Evidence of Inbreeding, Relatedness and Chaotic Genetic Patchiness in the Holoplanktonic Jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca (Scyphozoa, Cnidaria)

Genetic drift and non-random mating seldom influence species with large breeding populations and high dispersal potential, characterized by unstructured gene pool and panmixia at a scale lower than the minimum dispersal range of individuals. In the present study, a set of nine microsatellite markers was developed and used to investigate the spatio-temporal genetic patterns of the holoplanktonic jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca (Scyphozoa) in the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea. Homozygote excess was detected at eight loci, and individuals exhibited intra-population relatedness higher than expected by chance in at least three samples. This result was supported by the presence of siblings in at least 5 out 8 samples, 4 of which contained full-sib in addition to half-sib dyads. Having tested and ruled out alternative explanations as null alleles, our results suggest the influence of reproductive and behavioural features in shaping the genetic structure of P. noctiluca, as outcomes of population genetics analyses pointed out. Indeed, the genetic differentiation among populations was globally small but highlighted: a) a spatial genetic patchiness uncorrelated with distance between sampling locations, and b) a significant genetic heterogeneity between samples collected in the same locations in different years. Therefore, despite its extreme dispersal potential, P. noctiluca does not maintain a single homogenous population, but rather these jellyfish appear to have intra-bloom localized recruitment and/or individual cohesiveness, whereby siblings more likely swarm together as a single group and remain close after spawning events. These findings provide the first evidence of family structures and consequent genetic patchiness in a species with highly dispersive potential throughout its whole life cycle, contributing to understanding the patterns of dispersal and connectivity in marine environments.
Exfoliated black phosphorus gas sensing properties at room temperature

Room temperature gas sensing properties of chemically exfoliated black phosphorus (BP) to oxidizing (NO2, CO2) and reducing (NH3, H2, CO) gases in a dry air carrier have been reported. To study the gas sensing properties of BP, chemically exfoliated BP flakes have been drop casted on Si3N4 substrates provided with Pt comb-type interdigitated electrodes in N2 atmosphere. Scanning electron microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterizations show respectively the occurrence of a mixed structure, composed of BP coarse aggregates dispersed on BP exfoliated few layer flakes bridging the electrodes, and a clear 2p doublet belonging to BP, which excludes the occurrence of surface oxidation. Room temperature electrical tests in dry air show a p-type response of multilayer BP with measured detection limits of 20 ppb and 10 ppm to NO2 and NH3 respectively. No response to CO and CO2 has been detected, while a slight but steady sensitivity to H2 has been recorded. The reported results confirm, on an experimental basis, what was previously theoretically predicted, demonstrating the promising sensing properties of exfoliated BP.
Activation of human macrophages by human corneal allogen in vitro

Purpose To study distinct aspects of human monocyte-derived macrophage (MDM) activation by human corneal tissue as a possible initial stage in human corneal allograft rejection. Methods Human monocytes were isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and differentiated into MDM. Human corneas with or without endothelium were fragmented using a standardized protocol. MDM were stimulated with human corneal fragments, corneal fragment supernatant, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or interferon-gamma (IFNγ), and expression profiles for 34 cytokines were determined in MDM-conditioned media using a Luminex bead-based multiplex assay. Data from clinical aqueous humour samples served for comparison and validation. To assess cell recruitment, immunogenicity of corneal endothelial cells (CEC), monocyte survival and differentiation, we applied transwell migration assays, cell viability assays and fluorescence-activated cell sorting, respectively. Results Corneal fragments induced MDM to release distinct cytokines into the medium. Media thus conditioned in vitro by stimulated MDM shared cytokine patterns, namely MCP-1, MIP-1α and MIP-1β, with human aqueous humor samples obtained in human corneal allograft rejection. The presence of CEC in tissue fragments used for MDM stimulation attenuated the upregulation of distinct pro-inflammatory chemokines, like MCP-3 and IL-8, reduced the monocyte survival time, and diminished monocyte-to-macrophage differentiation induced by conditioned media. Distinct anti-inflammatory cytokines, like IL-4 and IL-13, were upregulated in the presence of corneal endothelium. Cornea fragment-stimulated MDMs induced recruitment of monocytes from a PBMC pool in a transwell migration model, modulated immune cell viability and promoted further immune cell recruitment and differentiation. Conclusions Human macrophages respond to allogenic corneal tissue and generate an inflammatory milieu. This can drive further recruitment of immunocompetent cells and modulate cell survival and differentiation of the cells recruited. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that macrophages play a significant role in the initiation of corneal transplant rejection. Our data also indicate that distinct aspects of early human corneal transplant rejection can be modelled in vitro.
Implementing a Social Knowledge Networking (SKN) system to enable meaningful use of an EHR medication reconciliation system

Background Despite the regulatory impetus toward meaningful use of electronic health record (EHR) Medication Reconciliation (MedRec) to prevent medication errors during care transitions, hospital adherence has lagged for one chief reason: low physician engagement, stemming from lack of consensus about which physician is responsible for managing a patient’s medication list. In October 2016, Augusta University received a 2-year grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to implement a Social Knowledge Networking (SKN) system for enabling its health system (AU Health) to progress from “limited use” of EHR MedRec technology to “meaningful use. ” The hypothesis is that SKN would bring together a diverse group of practitioners, to facilitate tacit knowledge exchange on issues related to EHR MedRec, which in turn is expected to increase practitioners’ engagement in addressing those issues and enable meaningful use of EHR. The specific aims are to examine: 1) user-engagement in the SKN system, and 2) associations between “SKN use” and “meaningful use” of EHR. Methods The 2-year project uses an exploratory mixed-method design and consists of three phases: 1) development; 2) SKN implementation; and 3) analysis. Phase 1, completed in May 2017, sought to identify a comprehensive set of issues related to EHR MedRec from practitioners directly involved in the MedRec process. This process facilitated development of a “Reporting Tool” on issues related to EHR MedRec, which, along with an existing “SKN/Discussion Tool,” was integrated into the EHR at AU Health. Phase 2 (launched in June 2017) involves implementing the EHR-integrated SKN system over a 52-week period in inpatient and outpatient medicine units. Discussion The prospective implementation design is expected to generate context-sensitive strategies for meaningful use and successful implementation of EHR MedRec and thereby make substantial contributions to the patient safety and risk management literature. From a health care policy perspective, if the hypothesis holds, federal vendors could be encouraged to incorporate SKN features into EHR systems.
Efficient collision checking in sampling-based motion planning via safety certificates

Collision checking is considered to be the most expensive computational bottleneck in sampling-based motion planning algorithms. We introduce a simple procedure that theoretically eliminates this bottleneck and significantly reduces collision-checking time in practice in several test scenarios. Whenever a point is collision checked in the normal (expensive) way, we store a lower bound on that point’s distance to the nearest obstacle. The latter is called a “safety certificate” and defines a region of the search space that is guaranteed to be collision-free. New points may forgo collision checking whenever they are located within a safety certificate of an old point. Testing the latter condition is accomplished during the nearest-neighbor search that is already part of most sampling-based motion planning algorithms. As more and more points are sampled, safety certificates asymptotically cover the search space and the amortized complexity of (normal, expensive) collision checking becomes negligible with respect to the overall runtime of sampling-based motion planning algorithms. Indeed, the expected fraction of points requiring a normal collision check approaches zero, in the limit, as the total number of points approaches infinity. A number of extensions to the basic idea are presented. Experiments with a number of proof-of-concept implementations demonstrate that using safety certificates can improve the performance of sampling-based motion planning algorithms in practice.
Association between Work Related Stress and Health Related Quality of Life: The Impact of Socio-Demographic Variables. A Cross Sectional Study in a Region of Central Italy

The aim of this work is investigate relationship between health-related quality of life and work-related stress and the impact of gender, education level, and age on this relationship. A cross-sectional study was conducted among workers of various setting in Rome and Frosinone. Work-related stress was measured with a demand–control questionnaire and health-related functioning by SF (short form)-12 health survey. There were 611 participants. Men reported high mental composite summary (MCS) and physical composite summary (PCS). In multivariate analysis age, gender (p < 0.001) and job demand (0.045) predicted low PCS. Low MCS predicted poor PCS. Job demand and educational level resulted negatively associated with MCS. In an analysis stratified for age, gender, and educational level, gender and age resulted effect modifier for MCS, gender and education level for PCS. In women increase of decision latitude predict (p = 0.001) an increase in MCS; a low job demand predict high MCS in male (p ≤ 0.001). In younger workers, a lower level of job demand predicted high MCS (<0.001). For PCS, gender and education level resulted effect modifier. In women, high decision latitude predicted higher PCS (p = 0.001) and lower level of job demand results in higher PCS (p ≤ 0.001). Higher educational level resulted predictor of low PCS. Management of risk about work-related stress should consider socio-demographic factors.
Quality evaluation of ultra‐thin samples: Application to graphene

Many new materials emerging are strictly two dimensional (2D), often only one or two monolayers thick. They include transition metal dichalcogenides, such as MoS2, and graphene. Graphene in particular appears to have many potential applications. Typically the crystalline film without contamination is of interest. Therefore, a reliable method is needed to routinely evaluate the quality of the synthesized samples. Here, we present one such candidate method that utilizes standard electron diffraction and low/medium magnification imaging in a rudimentary transmission electron microscope. The electron irradiation dose is very low thus reducing electron irradiation damage of the investigated samples. As an example, the method was applied to the evaluation of as‐grown graphene sample quality and a study on heating‐induced change in graphene. It can be used to evaluate the volume and areal ratio of crystalline to noncrystalline component. The method is amiable to automated film quality evaluation.
Discriminability of Single and Multichannel Intracortical Microstimulation within Somatosensory Cortex

The addition of tactile and proprioceptive feedback to neuroprosthetic limbs is expected to significantly improve the control of these devices. Intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) of somatosensory cortex is a promising method of delivering this sensory feedback. To date, the main focus of somatosensory ICMS studies has been to deliver discriminable signals, corresponding to varying intensity, to a single location in cortex. However, multiple independent and simultaneous streams of sensory information will need to be encoded by ICMS to provide functionally relevant feedback for a neuroprosthetic limb (e.g., encoding contact events and pressure on multiple digits). In this study, we evaluated the ability of an awake, behaving non-human primate (Macaca mulatta) to discriminate ICMS stimuli delivered on multiple electrodes spaced within somatosensory cortex. We delivered serial stimulation on single electrodes to evaluate the discriminability of sensations corresponding to ICMS of distinct cortical locations. Additionally, we delivered trains of multichannel stimulation, derived from a tactile sensor, synchronously across multiple electrodes. Our results indicate that discrimination of multiple ICMS stimuli is a challenging task, but that discriminable sensory percepts can be elicited by both single and multichannel ICMS on electrodes spaced within somatosensory cortex.
Solar Radiation Modeling for Turkey Using Atmospheric Parameters with Artificial Neural Networks

Artificial neural network (ANN) method was applied for modeling and prediction of mean solar radiation in given atmospheric parameters (temperature, pressure, humidity, precipitable water and month) in Turkey (26–45oE and 36–42oN) during the period of 2004–2006. Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) learning algorithms and logistic sigmoid transfer function were used in the network. In order to train the network, meteorological measurements taken by the Turkish State Meteorological Service (TSMS) and Wyoming University for the period from 2004 to 2006 from five stations (Adana, Ankara, İstanbul, İzmir, Samsun) distributed in Turkey were used as training and testing data. Data from years 2004 and 2005 were used for training, while the year 2006 was used for testing and validating the model. Solar radiation is the output.
Children’s Sense of Control as a Determinant of Adult Health: Causation, Mediation, and Spuriousness

Previous research suggests higher levels of education instill a greater sense of internal control that promotes health in adulthood. We propose that the sense of control has its origins in early childhood and that prior research has possibly misattributed a mediational role to sense of control in adulthood. Using a conceptual framework that includes these early influences, we employ data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (N = 9,855), examining the extent to which the association between education and adult health is spurious due to these early childhood factors. We find that the internal sense of control as assessed in childhood and adolescence has profound influences on both education and health in early adulthood and that a substantial portion of the latter association is spurious. We conclude that the sense of control is an important health-related factor originating early in life, influencing both health and education later in adulthood.
High throughput parallel encoding and decoding architecture for polar codes

Polar codes can provably achieve the capacity of a symmetric binary discrete memoryless channel. However, the encoding and decoding of polar codes with the conventional serial algorithm will lead to poor throughput. In this paper, we propose an encoding and decoding architecture of polar codes in a parallel way, and take advantage of the parallelism of belief propagation (BP) of polar codes to reduce the decoding delay. We investigate the implementation on graphic processing unit (GPU) for binary erasure channel (BEC) and Gaussian channel. Experimental results show that the performance of the presented architecture for Gaussian channel outperforming the conventional scheme in the BEC channel. The proposed parallel architecture of polar encoder achieves 778.86Kbps throughput when code length N=1024, and parallel architecture of polar decoder achieves 407.68Kbps throughput at 10 iterations when code length N=4096. The encoding was verified with code length N =512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384 and achieved up to 100× improvement in execution time compared to serial CPU encoding.
Segmentation of Multivariate Mixed Data via Lossy Data Coding and Compression

In this paper, based on ideas from lossy data coding and compression, we present a simple but effective technique for segmenting multivariate mixed data that are drawn from a mixture of Gaussian distributions, which are allowed to be almost degenerate. The goal is to find the optimal segmentation that minimizes the overall coding length of the segmented data, subject to a given distortion. By analyzing the coding length/rate of mixed data, we formally establish some strong connections of data segmentation to many fundamental concepts in lossy data compression and rate-distortion theory. We show that a deterministic segmentation is approximately the (asymptotically) optimal solution for compressing mixed data. We propose a very simple and effective algorithm that depends on a single parameter, the allowable distortion. At any given distortion, the algorithm automatically determines the corresponding number and dimension of the groups and does not involve any parameter estimation. Simulation results reveal intriguing phase-transition-like behaviors of the number of segments when changing the level of distortion or the amount of outliers. Finally, we demonstrate how this technique can be readily applied to segment real imagery and bioinformatic data.
Experience-dependent neuroplasticity of the developing hypothalamus: integrative epigenomic approaches

Background Maternal care during early-life plays a crucial role in the sculpting of the mammalian brain. Augmented maternal care during the first postnatal week promotes life-long stress resilience and improved memory compared with the outcome of routine rearing conditions. Recent evidence suggests that this potent phenotypic change commences with altered synaptic connectivity of stress sensitive hypothalamic neurons. However, the epigenomic basis of the long-lived consequences is not well understood. Methods Here, we employed whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS), RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq), and a multiplex microRNA (miRNA) assay to examine the effects of augmented maternal care on DNA cytosine methylation, gene expression, and miRNA expression. Results A significant decrease in global DNA methylation was observed in offspring hypothalamus following a week of augmented maternal care, corresponding to differential methylation and expression of thousands of genes. Differentially methylated and expressed genes were enriched for functions in neurotransmission, neurodevelopment, protein synthesis, and oxidative phosphorylation, as well as known stress response genes. Twenty prioritized genes with three lines of evidence (methylation, expression, and altered miRNA target) were identified as highly relevant to the stress resiliency phenotype. Conclusions This combined unbiased approach enabled the discovery of novel genes and gene pathways that advance our understanding of the central epigenomic mechanisms underlying the profound effects of maternal care on the developing brain.
Associations of Maternal Weight Status Before, During, and After Pregnancy with Inflammatory Markers in Breast Milk

The goal of this study was to examine the associations of maternal weight status before, during, and after pregnancy with breast milk C‐reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin 6 (IL‐6), two bioactive markers of inflammation, measured at 1 and 3 months post partum.