Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of automotive disc brake cooling characteristics

Abstract The aim of this investigation was to study automotive disc brake cooling characteristics experimentally using a specially developed spin rig and numerically using finite element (FE) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods. All three modes of heat transfer (conduction, convection and radiation) have been analysed along with the design features of the brake assembly and their interfaces. The spin rig proved to be very valuable equipment; experiments enabled the determination of the thermal contact resistance between the disc and wheel carrier. The analyses demonstrated the sensitivity of this mode of heat transfer to clamping pressure. For convective cooling, heat transfer coefficients were measured and very similar results were obtained from spin rig experiments and CFD analyses. The nature of radiative heat dissipation implies substantial e ects at high temperatures. The results indicate substantial change of emissivity throughout the brake application. The influence of brake cooling parameters on the disc temperature has been investigated by FE modelling of a long drag brake application. The thermal power dissipated during the drag brake application has been analysed to reveal the contribution of each mode of heat transfer.
Activation of Pyk2 by Stress Signals and Coupling with JNK Signaling Pathway

The c-Jun amino-terminal kinase (JNK) is activated by various heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding protein (G protein)-coupled receptors, inflammatory cytokines, and stress signals. Yet, upstream mediators that link extracellular signals with the JNK signaling pathway are currently unknown. The tyrosine kinase Pyk2 was activated by tumor necrosis factor α, by ultraviolet irradiation, and by changes in osmolarity. Overexpression of Pyk2 led to activation of JNK, and a dominant-negative mutant of Pyk2 interfered with ultraviolet light- or osmotic shock-induced activation of JNK. Pyk2 represents a cell type-specific, stress-sensitive mediator of the JNK signaling pathway.
Cutting Edge: Preferentially the R-Stereoisomer of the Mycoplasmal Lipopeptide Macrophage-Activating Lipopeptide-2 Activates Immune Cells Through a Toll-Like Receptor 2- and MyD88-Dependent Signaling Pathway1

Mycoplasmas and their membranes are potent activators of macrophages, the active principle being lipoproteins and lipopeptides. Two stereoisomers of the mycoplasmal lipopeptide macrophage-activating lipopeptide-2 (MALP-2) differing in the configuration of the lipid moiety were synthesized and compared in their macrophage-activating potential, the R-MALP being >100 times more active than the S-MALP in stimulating the release of cytokines, chemokines, and NO. To assess the role of the Toll-like receptor (TLR) family in mycoplasmal lipopeptide signaling, the MALP-2-mediated responses were analyzed using macrophages from wild-type, TLR2-, TLR4-, and MyD88-deficient mice. TLR2- and MyD88-deficient cells showed severely impaired cytokine productions in response to R- and S-MALP. The MALP-induced activation of intracellular signaling molecules was fully dependent on both TLR2 and MyD88. There was a strong preference for the R-MALP in the recognition by its functional receptor, TLR2.
Structural and Functional Imaging Studies in Chronic Cannabis Users: A Systematic Review of Adolescent and Adult Findings

Introduction The growing concern about cannabis use, the most used illicit drug worldwide, has led to an increase in the number of cannabis studies using neuroimaging techniques to determine its effect on brain structure and function. Aims We conducted a systematic review to assess the evidence of the impact of chronic cannabis use on brain structure and function in adults and adolescents. Methods Papers published until August 2012 were included from EMBASE, Medline, PubMed and LILACS databases following a comprehensive search strategy and pre-determined set of criteria for article selection. Only neuroimaging studies involving chronic cannabis users with a matched control group were considered. Results One hundred and forty-two studies were identified, of which 43 met the established criteria. Eight studies were in adolescent population. Neuroimaging studies provide evidence of morphological brain alterations in both population groups, particularly in the medial temporal and frontal cortices, as well as the cerebellum. These effects may be related to the amount of cannabis exposure. Functional neuroimaging studies suggest different patterns of resting global and brain activity during the performance of several cognitive tasks also in both groups, which may indicate compensatory effects in response to chronic cannabis exposure. The results pointed out methodological limitations among studies and high heterogeneity in the findings. Conclusion Chronic cannabis use may alter brain structure and function in adult and adolescent population. Further studies should consider the use of convergent and multimodal methodology, prospective large samples involving adolescent to adulthood subjects, and data-sharing initiatives. Grants: PNSD/2011/050, PNSD2006/101, SGR2009/1435.
Collection and Motif-Based Prediction of Phosphorylation Sites in Human Viruses

A database of known phosphorylation sites on viral proteins also enables the prediction of other potential sites. Predictors of Phosphorylation Viruses use, and abuse, the protein phosphorylation systems of infected cells to enhance their replication and to inhibit the responses of the host, among other processes. Thus, knowledge of the viral proteins that are regulated by phosphorylation, and of the sites that are modified, would improve our understanding of virus-host interactions and the development of therapeutic strategies to combat viral infection. Schwartz and Church have compiled the first online database of viral phosphorylation sites, virPTM, which they collected from published data on the phosphorylation of proteins from more than 50 viruses that infect humans. Further, the authors used the scan-x tool to make predictions about other possible phosphorylation sites, which have yet to be experimentally verified. Future additions to the database include information on other posttranslational modifications of viral proteins. Although various databases have been established that are designed to compile an ever-growing list of protein phosphorylation sites in plants and animals, no such repository exists for viruses. Here, we developed the viral posttranslational modification (virPTM) database, which contains a comprehensive list of 329 accurately localized phosphorylation sites in proteins from 52 human viruses published between 1986 and the present. Additionally, to aid in the detection of new viral phosphorylation sites, we used the scan-x tool to make thousands of high-specificity serine, threonine, and tyrosine phosphorylation predictions in 229 viruses that replicate in human cells. By cross-validating our prediction results with the literature-based entries in the virPTM database, we highlight the effectiveness of the scan-x tool with viral data and extrapolate the existence of at least 4000 as yet unidentified phosphorylation sites on hundreds of viral proteins. Together, these results imply a substantial role for human kinases in mediating viral protein functions and suggest, more generally, that viral primary structure may provide important clues to aid in the rational design of therapeutic agents.
Long-term prognostic significance of HSP-70, c-myc and HLA-DR expression in patients with malignant melanoma.

AIM Use of molecular markers indicative of the tumour oncogenic potential and host response may enhance our prognostic information for more effective treatment of melanoma patients. The roles of HSP-70 protein, c-myc oncogene and HLA-DR antigen expression were examined in melanoma patients and related to prognostic factors, recurrence rate and long-term survival. METHODS Forty patients with tumours thicker than 1 mm were included in this study. All had elective node dissection and were followed for at least 7 years. Twenty-two had microscopic nodal metastases. Both primary melanoma tumour and lymph nodes were examined for the immunohistochemical expression of HSP-70 protein, c-myc oncogene and HLA-DR antigen. RESULTS Eighteen patients had a recurrence (45%) and 23 patients survived overall (57.50%). Positive HSP-70 expression was observed in 52.50% of the primary melanomas and was associated with improved overall survival, especially in the patient group with tumours > or = 1.5 mm (70%vs 26.70%, P=0.0159). C-myc oncogene was overexpressed in 47.50% and HLA-DR antigen in 42.50% of the primary melanomas, but no correlation with survival was observed. The expression profile of these molecular markers in the primary tumour did not predict the status of regional nodes. HLA-DR expression in lymph nodes was observed exclusively in the nodal tissue surrounding the metastatic melanoma tumour in five patients. CONCLUSIONS The immunohistochemical expression profile of HSP-70 but not of c-myc oncogene or HLA-DR antigen in the primary melanoma tumour could be of certain value in the identification of patients with graver prognosis who may benefit from more aggressive therapeutic strategies.
Persistence, offline algorithms, and space compaction

Author(s): Eppstein, David | Abstract: We consider dynamic data structures in which updates rebuild a static solution. Space bounds for persistent versions of these structures can often be reduced by using an offiine persistent data structure in place of the static solution. We apply this technique to decomposable search problems, to dynamic linear programming, and to maintaining the minimum spanning tree in a dynarnic graph. Our algorithms admit trade-offs of update time vs. query time, and of time vs. space.
Suppression of β-Amyloid Precursor Protein Signaling into the Nucleus by Estrogens Mediated through Complex Formation between the Estrogen Receptor and Fe65

ABSTRACT The C-terminal fragment of the β-amyloid precursor protein produced after cleavage by γ-secretase, namely, APPct or AICD, has been shown to form a multimeric complex with the adaptor protein Fe65 and to regulate transcription through the recruitment of the histone acetyltransferase Tip60. The present study shows that 17β-estradiol inhibits the transcriptional and apoptotic activities of the APPct complex by a process involving the interaction of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) with Fe65. ERα-Fe65 complexes were detected both in vitro and in the mouse brain, and recruitment of ERα to the promoter of an APPct target gene (KAI1) was demonstrated. Our studies reveal a novel mechanism of estrogen action, which may explain the well-known neuroprotective functions of estrogens as well as the complex role of this female hormone in the pathogenesis of neuronal degeneration diseases.
Analysis of cold-start recommendations in IPTV systems

In this paper we evaluate the performance of different collaborative algorithms in cold-start situations, where the initial lack of ratings may affect the quality of the algorithms. The evaluation has been performed on the pay-per-view datasets collected by two IP-television providers over a period of several months. The analysis shows that item-based algorithms perform better with respect to SVD-based ones in the early stage of the cold-start problem. Moreover, the accuracy of SVD-based algorithms, when using few latent factors, decreases with the time-evolution of the dataset. On the contrary, the same algorithms used with a large-enough number of latent features increase their accuracy with time and may outperform the item-based algorithms.
Multi-Objective Optimization of Abrasive Waterjet Machining Process Parameters Using Particle Swarm Technique

Multi-objective optimization is carried out for the first time to optimize abrasive water jet machining (AWJM) process parameters for graphite. Experiments are carried out by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) using Box-Behnken method. The input process parameters considered are pressure (P), traverse rate (TR) and mesh size (MS). Results are analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and response surface considering individually output parameters such as depth of cut (DOC) and surface roughness (Ra). ANOVA and response surface analyses indicated that similar combinations of AWJM process parameters such as high pressure (176 MPa), medium mesh size (# 100) and low traverse rate (1000 mm/min) resulted in higher depth of cut as well as lower Ra. Therefore, in order to verify the above combinations and to improve productivity, multi-objective optimization is carried out using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to achieve higher depth of cut and low Ra together. From the PSO analysis, it is observed that pressure of 154 MPa, traverse rate of 1877 mm/min and mesh size of # 100 result in high depth of cut and low Ra together. The result obtained from the PSO is compared with that of ANOVA. The outcome of this study will be useful to the manufacturing engineers for selecting appropriate input AWJM process parameters for machining graphite, which has various applications such as aerospace, defence, etc. Multi-Objective Optimization of Abrasive Waterjet Machining Process Parameters Using Particle Swarm Technique
The Cytoarchitecture of Domain-specific Regions in Human High-level Visual Cortex

Abstract A fundamental hypothesis in neuroscience proposes that underlying cellular architecture (cytoarchitecture) contributes to the functionality of a brain area. However, this hypothesis has not been tested in human ventral temporal cortex (VTC) that contains domain‐specific regions causally involved in perception. To fill this gap in knowledge, we used cortex‐based alignment to register functional regions from living participants to cytoarchitectonic areas in ex vivo brains. This novel approach reveals 3 findings. First, there is a consistent relationship between domain‐specific regions and cytoarchitectonic areas: each functional region is largely restricted to 1 cytoarchitectonic area. Second, extracting cytoarchitectonic profiles from face‐ and place‐selective regions after back‐projecting each region to 20‐&mgr;m thick histological sections indicates that cytoarchitectonic properties distinguish these regions from each other. Third, some cytoarchitectonic areas contain more than 1 domain‐specific region. For example, face‐, body‐, and character‐selective regions are located within the same cytoarchitectonic area. We summarize these findings with a parsimonious hypothesis incorporating how cellular properties may contribute to functional specialization in human VTC. Specifically, we link computational principles to correlated axes of functional and cytoarchitectonic segregation in human VTC, in which parallel processing across domains occurs along a lateral‐medial axis while transformations of information within domain occur along an anterior‐posterior axis.
XPS Characterization of Iron Oxide and Gold Nanoparticles for Tumor Care

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIO) have a wide range of applications, including high-density magnetic storage, catalytic and separation processes, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in vivo imaging of tumor progression. One advantage is that they are sufficiently inert to be injected to the human body without significant counter effects. For these reasons, SPIO are utilized as carriers to target tumor tissues with the aim to visualize the extension of the malignant affection and to cure it. A mimetic coating is needed to overcome the immune system and ensure a sufficient long life to allow SPIO to reach the tumor tissue. In addition, gold nanoparticles were functionalized and coated with the same mimetic film. Differently from iron oxide NPs, those based on gold may be utilized to perform Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) to obtain spatial and chemical information. In this work, we present preliminary results on iron oxide and gold-based NPs synthesized in our laboratories. A full characterization was performed by means of XPS to study both the chemical composition of the SPIO nanoparticles, of their mimetic coatings, and to get structural information.
Mixed-Integer Programming Methods for Finding Nash Equilibria

We present, to our knowledge, the first mixed integer program (MIP) formulations for finding Nash equilibria in games (specifically, two-player normal form games). We study different design dimensions of search algorithms that are based on those formulations. Our MIP Nash algorithm outperforms Lemke-Howson but not Porter-Nudelman-Shoham (PNS) on GAMUT data. We argue why experiments should also be conducted on games with equilibria with medium-sized supports only, and present a methodology for generating such games. On such games MIP Nash drastically outperforms PNS but not Lemke-Howson. Certain MIP Nash formulations also yield anytime algorithms for E-equilibrium. with provable bounds. Another advantage of MIP Nash is that it can be used to find an optimal equilibrium (according to various objectives). The prior algorithms can be extended to that setting, but they are orders of magnitude slower.
ZnO-Based Ultraviolet Photodetectors With Novel Nanosheet Structures

This study presents the fabrication of ZnO nanosheets on a glass substrate using a room-temperature (approximately 25 °C) solution method. The average length and diameter of the ZnO nanosheets were 1.2 μm and approximately 5 nm, respectively. The ultraviolet (UV)-to-visible rejection ratio of the sample is approximately 42 when biased at 1 V, and the fabricated UV photodetector is visible-blind with a sharp cutoff at 370 nm. The transient time constants measured during the rise time and fall time were τr = 5.37 s and 6.02 s, respectively. The low-frequency noise spectra obtained from the UV photodetector were caused purely by the 1/ f noise. The noise-equivalent power and normalized detectivity ( D<sup>*</sup>) of the ZnO nanosheet photodetector were 6.12 × 10 <sup>-9</sup>W and 2.17 × 10 <sup>9</sup> cm·Hz <sup>0.5</sup> W <sup>-1</sup>, respectively.
Laser filamentation in chalcogenide glass

We report laser filamentation in the bulk of chalcogenide glass with femtosecond laser pulses of energy on the nanojoule level. Spatially resolved measurements of the resulting refractive index modification are presented. The study of the pulse energy and focusing condition dependencies show that channels of positive refractive index variation of several millimeter length can easily be obtained.
Hierarchical Statistical Leakage Analysis and Its Application

In this article, we investigate a hierarchical statistical leakage analysis (HSLA) design flow where module-level statistical leakage models supplied by IP vendors are used to improve the efficiency and capacity of SoC statistical leakage power analysis. To solve the challenges of incorporating spatial correlations between IP modules at system level, we first propose a method to extract correlation-inclusive leakage models. Then a method to handle the spatial correlations at system level is proposed. Using this method, the runtime of system statistical leakage analysis (SLA) can be significantly improved without disclosing the netlists of the IP modules. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed HSLA method is about 100 times faster than gate-level full-chip SLA methods while maintaining the accuracy. In addition, we also investigate one application of this HSLA method, a leakage-yield-driven floorplanning framework, to demonstrate the benefits of such an HSLA method in practice. Moreover, an optimized hierarchical leakage analysis method dedicated to the floorplanning framework is proposed. The effectiveness of the floorplanning framework and the optimized method are confirmed by extensive experimental results.
Constructung 3D cell-laden hydrogels on electromolding

Constructing microstructures with crosslinkable biomaterials, gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) contain fibroblasts (NIH-3T3) and hepatocytes (HepG2) is demonstrated by electromolding drove by electrowetting on an electromicrofluidic platform without physical molds. Hydrogel prepolymer solutions with cells/particles were dispensed and manipulated between two glass plates with desired electrode that determined the geometry of the 3D microstructures after crosslinking. The prepolymer hydrogel solution was driven and formed in the liquid state, making cells/particles addressable before solidification for 3D cell culture. Distinct solutions containing different cells/particles can be driven simultaneously for cell co-culture studies. The proposed electromolding is also applicable to various materials that are crosslinked by light, chemical reaction, or heat on a single platform.
Comparison of the Hemodynamic Changes Produced by Electrical Stimulation of the Area Postrema and Nucleus Tractus Solitarii in the Dog

Previous studies have implicated the area postrema (AP) as a site responsible for the centrally mediated neurogenic effects of angiotensin II. To clarify further its possible role in the central control of blood pressure, stainless steel electrodes were lowered stereotaxically into the AP of morphine-chloralose-anesthetized dogs after surgical exposure of the walls of the 4th ventricle just anterior to the obex. In all experiments, large pressor responses were obtained at a relatively low stimulus strength (range: 20-80 μA, 20-60 Hz); the increases in pressure (average: 30 ± 4 mm Hg) were rapid in onset and sustained for the 10- to 20-second duration of the stimulus. Hemodynamically, the pressor response during AP stimulation was due to increases in both cardiac output (+211 ± 37 ml/ min) and peripheral resistance (+0.81 ± 0.33 U). An increase in heart rate contributed to the onset but not the plateau of the pressor response. Reconstruction of electrode tracts in all experiments corrobo-rated that these pressor responses originated in the AP. The specificity of these cardiovascular responses was confirmed further by repeating the same kind of stimuli with electrodes placed in the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS). In contrast to the effects obtained during AP stimulation, bradycardia (-41 ± 6 beats/min) and hypotension (-29 ± 5 mm Hg) were characteristic features. The fall in blood pressure during NTS stimulation was secondary to the pronounced bradycardia and decreased cardiac output. The data suggest that the AP is part of a previously unrecognized pathway which is distinct from the primary baroreflex pathway with relays in the adjacent NTS. Circ Res 45:136-143, 1979
Passive and active middle ear implants

Besides eradication of chronic middle ear disease, the reconstruction of the sound conduction apparatus is a major goal of modern ear microsurgery. The material of choice in cases of partial ossicular replacement prosthesis is the autogenous ossicle. In the event of more extensive destruction of the ossicular chain diverse alloplastic materials, e.g. metals, ceramics, plastics or composits are used for total reconstruction. Their specialised role in conducting sound energy within a half-open implant bed sets high demands on the biocompatibility as well as the acoustic-mechanic properties of the prosthesis. Recently, sophisticated titanium middle ear implants allowing individual adaptation to anatomical variations are widely used for this procedure. However, despite modern developments, hearing restoration with passive implants often faces its limitations due to tubal-middle-ear dysfunction. Here, implantable hearing aids, successfully used in cases of sensorineural hearing loss, offer a promising alternative. This article reviews the actual state of affairs of passive and active middle ear implants.