Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
First-principles theoretical investigation of graphene layers for sensor applications

Graphene is expected to be a potential device material for sensor applications due to its high charge mobility and high sensitivity to adsorbates. This article reviews the first-principles density-functional study that clarifies gas adsorption effects on graphene layers doped with boron and nitrogen atoms. We show adsorption effects of not only common gas molecules but also environmentally polluting or toxic gas molecules on stabilities and structural properties of graphene layers and carbon nanotubes. We also show physical properties induced by the adsorption of the gas molecules and discuss the possibility to detect these gas molecules.
The World is Canvas: a coloring application for children based on physical interaction

This paper focuses on the creativity of painting in artistic creativities and aims to increase children's motivation in painting. This research assumes that fun through physical interactions increases the motivation for children to paint. We developed two approaches and implemented an iPhone application "The World is Canvas". This application allows users to use any image as a draft for coloring. We conducted user evaluation tests to validate these approaches, and their effectiveness was proved.
Dramatic Increase in Venous Thromboembolism in Children's Hospitals in the United States From 2001 to 2007

OBJECTIVES: The goals were to determine whether there has been an increase in the rate of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in pediatric tertiary care hospitals and to evaluate the use of anticoagulants in the treatment of hospitalized pediatric patients with VTE. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study of patients <18 years of age who were discharged from 35 to 40 children's hospitals (depending on the year) across the United States in 2001–2007 was performed. By using the Pediatric Health Information System administrative database, cases were assessed for discharge diagnosis codes for VTE; the use of anticoagulants was assessed by using patient-specific pharmacy files. RESULTS: During the 7-year study period, in which 11337 hospitalized patients were diagnosed with VTE, the annual rate of VTE increased by 70%, from 34 to 58 cases per 10000 hospital admissions (P < .001). This increase was observed in neonates, infants, children, and adolescents. The majority (63%) of children with VTE had ≥1 coexisting chronic complex medical condition. Pediatric malignancy was the medical comorbid condition associated most strongly with recurrent VTE (P < .001). The proportion of children with VTE who were treated with enoxaparin increased from 29% to 49% during this time period (P < .001); the use of warfarin decreased slightly from 11.4% to 9.6% (P = .02). Increasing age was associated with increased likelihood of patients with VTE being treated with either enoxaparin or warfarin. CONCLUSION: This multicenter study demonstrates a dramatic increase in the diagnosis of VTE at children's hospitals from 2001 to 2007.
A PENELOPE-based system for the automated Monte Carlo simulation of clinacs and voxelized geometries-application to far-from-axis fields.

PURPOSE Two new codes, PENEASY and PENEASYLINAC, which automate the Monte Carlo simulation of Varian Clinacs of the 600, 1800, 2100, and 2300 series, together with their electron applicators and multileaf collimators, are introduced. The challenging case of a relatively small and far-from-axis field has been studied with these tools. METHODS PENEASY is a modular, general-purpose main program for the PENELOPE Monte Carlo system that includes various source models, tallies and variance-reduction techniques (VRT). The code includes a new geometry model that allows the superposition of voxels and objects limited by quadric surfaces. A variant of the VRT known as particle splitting, called fan splitting, is also introduced. PENEASYLINAC, in turn, automatically generates detailed geometry and configuration files to simulate linacs with PENEASY. These tools are applied to the generation of phase-space files, and of the corresponding absorbed dose distributions in water, for two 6 MV photon beams from a Varian Clinac 2100 C∕D: a 40 × 40 cm(2) centered field; and a 3 × 5 cm(2) field centered at (4.5, -11.5) cm from the beam central axis. This latter configuration implies the largest possible over-traveling values of two of the jaws. Simulation results for the depth dose and lateral profiles at various depths are compared, by using the gamma index, with experimental values obtained with a PTW 31002 ionization chamber. The contribution of several VRTs to the computing speed of the more demanding off-axis case is analyzed. RESULTS For the 40 × 40 cm(2) field, the percentages γ(1) and γ(1.2) of voxels with gamma indices (using 0.2 cm and 2% criteria) larger than unity and larger than 1.2 are 0.2% and 0%, respectively. For the 3 × 5 cm(2) field, γ(1) = 0%. These figures indicate an excellent agreement between simulation and experiment. The dose distribution for the off-axis case with voxels of 2.5 × 2.5 × 2.5 mm(3) and an average standard statistical uncertainty of 2% (1σ) is computed in 3.1 h on a single core of a 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. This result is obtained with the optimal combination of the tested VRTs. In particular, fan splitting for the off-axis case accelerates execution by a factor of 240 with respect to standard particle splitting. CONCLUSIONS PENEASY and PENEASYLINAC can simulate the considered Varian Clinacs both in an accurate and efficient manner. Fan splitting is crucial to achieve simulation results for the off-axis field in an affordable amount of CPU time. Work to include Elekta linacs and to develop a graphical interface that will facilitate user input is underway.
A Model-based approach to Managing Enterprise Information Systems

Organizations must evolve their information systems (IS) in order to adapt to changes in their environment or to maintain or enhance competitiveness. The use of modern application integration technologies (e.g., middleware) and advanced network technologies has resulted in IS that provide services at unprecedented levels, but at the price of becoming more complex and thus more difficult to evolve. By way of concrete examples, this paper focuses on the use of system models expressed in the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to effectively manage information systems assets. The system models capture critical information about an organization and are part of an overall framework called the Application Mapping Framework or AMF. The AMF can be used by IT architects and planners to track applications, relate descriptions of system artifacts across different levels of abstraction and support redundancy, gap and impact analyses. The paper also identifies management roles needed to ensure that the AMF repository contains comprehensive and upto-date models.
An Object Oriented Framework For Database Benchmarking Based On The Open Source Database Benchmark Project

This paper describes two research contributions. First, we have completed a prototype implementation of the Open Source Database Benchmark (OSDB) project for the Oracle database management system. Second, we have developed an implementation of an extensible framework for database benchmark tools based on the OSDB project. The framework allows developers to easily “plug-in” database systems and tests which would allow for a complete database benchmarking suite. To achieve a balance between gaining flexibility and reducing overhead, we use an object oriented design that incorporates design patterns to solve several significant problems seen with the current system.
Physical fitness, exercise, and REM sleep cycle length.

It has been suggested, on the basis of phylogenetic and ontogenetic data, that the length of the REM sleep cycle is negatively related to metabolic rate. However, experimental studies have not consistently found this relationship. We report the effects of two variables, the level of physical fitness and the amount of daytime exercise, on sleep cycle length. Since both physical fitness and exercise involve increased levels of energy expenditure, and thus increased metabolic rate, it was predicted that they would he negatively related to cycle length. The sleep of 46 subjects (20 fit and 26 unfit) was assessed on nights following both exercise and non-exercise conditions. The cycle length of fit subjects was found to be shorter than that of unfit subjects. However cycle length on a night following daytime exercise did not differ from that on a night following a no-exercise day. We conclude that sleep cycle length is responsive to relatively long term variations in energy expenditure, but not day to day changes.
Women Benefit More Than Men in Response to College-based Meditation Training

Objectives: While recent literature has shown that mindfulness training has positive effects on treating anxiety and depression, there has been virtually no research investigating whether effects differ across genders—despite the fact that men and women differ in clinically significant ways. The current study investigated whether college-based meditation training had different effects on negative affect for men and women. Methods: Seventy-seven university students (36 women, age = 20.7 ± 3.0 years) participated in 12-week courses with meditation training components. They completed self-report questionnaires of affect, mindfulness, and self-compassion before and after the course. Results: Compared to men, women showed greater decreases in negative affect and greater increases on scales measuring mindfulness and self-compassion. Women’s improvements in negative affect were correlated to improvements in measures of both mindfulness skills and self-compassion. In contrast, men showed non-significant increases in negative affect, and changes in affect were only correlated with ability to describe emotions, not any measures of experiential or self-acceptance. Conclusion: These findings suggest that women may have more favorable responses than men to school-based mindfulness training, and that the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions may be maximized by gender-specific modifications.
Hippocampal Shape Analysis of Alzheimer Disease Based on Machine Learning Methods

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Alzheimer disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive dementia. The hippocampus is particularly vulnerable to damage at the very earliest stages of AD. This article seeks to evaluate critical AD-associated regional changes in the hippocampus using machine learning methods. MATERIALS AND METHODS: High-resolution MR images were acquired from 19 patients with AD and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects. Regional changes of bilateral hippocampi were characterized using computational anatomic mapping methods. A feature selection method for support vector machine and leave-1-out cross-validation was introduced to determine regional shape differences that minimized the error rate in the datasets. RESULTS: Patients with AD showed significant deformations in the CA1 region of bilateral hippocampi, as well as the subiculum of the left hippocampus. There were also some changes in the CA2–4 subregions of the left hippocampus among patients with AD. Moreover, the left hippocampal surface showed greater variations than the right compared with those in healthy control subjects. The accuracies of leave-1-out cross-validation and 3-fold cross-validation experiments for assessing the reliability of these subregions were more than 80% in bilateral hippocampi. CONCLUSION: Subtle and spatially complex deformation patterns of hippocampus between patients with AD and healthy control subjects can be detected by machine learning methods.
Defective interfering viruses and their impact on vaccines and viral vectors

Defective interfering particles (DIPs) have been found for many important viral pathogens and it is believed that most viruses generate DIPs. This article reviews the current knowledge of the generation and amplification of DIPs, which possess deletions in the viral genome but retain the ability to replicate in the presence of a complete helper virus. In addition, mechanisms are discussed by which DIPs interfere with the replication of their helper virus leading to the production of mainly progeny DIPs by coinfected cells. Even though DIPs cannot replicate on their own, they are biologically active and it is well known that they have a huge impact on virus replication, evolution, and pathogenesis. Moreover, defective genomes are potent inducers of the innate immune response. Yet, little attention has been paid to DIPs in recent years and their impact on biotechnological products such as vaccines and viral vectors remains elusive in most cases. With a focus on influenza virus, this review demonstrates that DIPs are important for basic research on viruses and for the production of viral vaccines and vectors. Reducing the generation and/or amplification of DIPs ensures reproducible results as well as high yields and consistent product quality in virus production.
TECHNICAL NOTE CRIMINALISTICS

DNA amplification is a fundamental yet costly process used in DNA analysis. This study evaluated half-reaction amplification (12.5, 12, and 13 uL) using the Promega Powerplex 16 Kit with the hope of reducing sample analysis costs by half. A sensitivity study was completed, along with the testing of various blood stain samples including those with low (<0.40 ng) and high DNA concentrations (>3.0 ng), peak height imbalances, and allelic drop-out. Also, 467 samples submitted to the MUFSC laboratory for testing were analyzed. Results indicate that half-reaction amplification produced higher quality profiles than full-reactions. Average peak heights increased by 85%, peak height imbalances improved, and drop-out was eliminated in 75.8% of samples. Only eight of 467 case samples required re-amplification, a success rate of 94% was observed, and the repeat rate decreased significantly. Finally, a DNA input of 0.25–1.0 ng is ideal for half-reaction amplification.
Genetically distinct pathways guide effector export through the type VI secretion system

Bacterial secretion systems often employ molecular chaperones to recognize and facilitate export of their substrates. Recent work demonstrated that a secreted component of the type VI secretion system (T6SS), haemolysin co‐regulated protein (Hcp), binds directly to effectors, enhancing their stability in the bacterial cytoplasm. Herein, we describe a quantitative cellular proteomics screen for T6S substrates that exploits this chaperone‐like quality of Hcp. Application of this approach to the Hcp secretion island I‐encoded T6SS (H1‐T6SS) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa led to the identification of a novel effector protein, termed Tse4 (type VI secretion exported 4), subsequently shown to act as a potent intra‐specific H1‐T6SS‐delivered antibacterial toxin. Interestingly, our screen failed to identify two predicted H1‐T6SS effectors, Tse5 and Tse6, which differ from Hcp‐stabilized substrates by the presence of toxin‐associated PAAR‐repeat motifs and genetic linkage to members of the valine‐glycine repeat protein G (vgrG) genes. Genetic studies further distinguished these two groups of effectors: Hcp‐stabilized effectors were found to display redundancy in interbacterial competition with respect to the requirement for the two H1‐T6SS‐exported VgrG proteins, whereas Tse5 and Tse6 delivery strictly required a cognate VgrG. Together, we propose that interaction with either VgrG or Hcp defines distinct pathways for T6S effector export.
Reply: To PMID 25887392.

phenomenon. Rheumatology (Oxford) 2015;54:392–9. [4] Sterling M, Valentin S, Vicenzino B, Souvlis T, Connelly L. Dry needling and exercise for chronic whiplash—a randomised controlled trial. BMC Musculoskelet Disord 2009;10:160. [5] StoneA, Vicenzino B, LimE, SterlingM.Measures of central hyperexcitability in chronic whiplash associated disorder—a systematic review and metaanalysis. Man Ther 2012;18:111–17.
STORAGE OF ROOT RESERVES IN RHODES GRASS.

It is a well-known fact that the roots of many perennial herbaceous plants function as organs of storage, even where there are no special morphological modifications of the root system. Root-storage phenomena in herbaceous plants have been studied in detail by a number of workers. Graber and associates (7) found that in lucerne, polysaccharides and nitrogen increased in percentage and amount in the roots during the mature stages whereas spring growth was associated with a decrease in the percentage of nitrogen and soluble sugars in both tops and roots. The authors conclude that "storage is greatly accelerated during the periods of blossoming and seed formation. At such periods, the plant produces reserve foods in excess of the amounts used in vegetative extension and a surplus is stored in the roots-" Willard (20), likewise working on lucerne, made similar observations. Aldous (1) found that in the roots of Vemonia baldwinii, Andropogon scoparius, Symphoricarpus vulgaris, Rhus glabra and Verbena stricta the percentage of nitrogen, total sugars and starch in general decreased to about the time of flowering, after which considerable increases of these constituents were recorded. Aldous thinks that after the time of flowering "the plants begin to restore the reserves which must have been drawn on to produce the top growth. " Similarly, Grandfield (8) reports a 23.8 per cent, increase in the amount of total carbohydrates and a 16.8 per cent, increase in the amount of total nitrogen in the roots of Verbena stricta during the period between budding and maturity, and approximately the same increases in the roots of Solidago rigida and Vemonia baldwinii. According to Bews and Vanderplank (5), the percentage of total carbohydrates increased during the entire season and that of total soluble sugars during winter only, in the conns of Hypoxis rooperi, while the percentages of the same compounds decreased in the leaves between spring and autumn. The authors think, however, that in this plant "the large carbohydrate reserves are drawn upon to only a very slight extent when new leaves are produced in spring. * ' More recently data have been collected with regard to the storage and utilization of root reserves in various grasses. Sturkie (16) found that the rootstocks of Sorghum halepense were developed after the maturing of aerial plant parts; this was confirmed by Sampson and McCarty (14) in Stipa pulchra, where an accumulation of carbohydrate reserves in the roots was observed during maturation. In the roots of Digitaria eriantha and Themeda
Novel insight into the structure and properties of lead-free dielectric Sr3TiNb4O15

Sr3TiNb4O15 has been synthesised and its structure and dielectric properties characterised. In contrast to previously reported results the compound has been found to form with Pna21 symmetry and unit cell dimensions a = 12.3631(19), b = 12.4027(19) and c = 7.7601(12) A. Variable temperature studies show a phase transition from orthorhombic to tetragonal symmetry at approximately 625 K, much higher than previously reported. Temperature-dependent dielectric measurements have also been performed and these correlate very well with the observed phase transition temperature.
Enhanced interfacial interaction by grafting carboxylated-macromolecular chains on nanodiamond surfaces for epoxy-based thermosets

A novel core-shell-structured carboxylated-styrene butadiene rubber (XSBR)-functionalized nanodiamond (ND-XSBR) was synthesized and characterized. Epoxy (EP) nanocomposites toughened by pristine ND and ND-XSBR were investigated and compared. The ND-XSBR-reinforced nanocomposite exhibited mechanical properties superior to those of the one filled by pristine ND. At a low-filler loading, the ND-XSBR exhibited an impressive toughening effect. The maximum flexural strength was shown when the filler loading was as low as 0.1 wt % for the EP/ND-XSBR nanocomposite. Furthermore, enhanced fracture toughness and fracture energy were shown by surface functionalization, representing enhanced compatibility between the ND-XSBR and EP matrix. The glass transition temperature (Tg) and storage modulus of the nanocomposites were studied, and the EP/ND-XSBR0.1 nanocomposite exhibited the highest Tg owing to the stronger interfacial interaction. The EP/ND-XSBR0.2 exhibited higher storage modulus and Tg than the EP/ND0.2, because the higher interfacial interaction can restrict the molecular mobility of the EP by the functionalized ND-XSBR. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017.
In vivo measurements of limbic glutamate and GABA concentrations in epileptic patients during affective and cognitive tasks: A microdialysis study

Limbic system structures such as the amygdala (AMG) and the hippocampus (HIPP) are involved in affective and cognitive processing. However, because of the limitations in noninvasive technology, absolute concentrations of the neurotransmitters underlying limbic system engagement are not known. Here, we report changes in the concentrations of the neurotransmitters glutamate (Glu) and gamma‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the HIPP and the AMG of patients with nonlesional temporal lobe epilepsy undergoing surgery for intracranial subdural and depth electrode implantation. We utilized an in‐vivo microdialysis technique while subjects were engaged in cognitive tasks with or without emotional content. The performance of an emotion learning task (EmoLearn) was associated with a significant increase in the concentration of glutamate in the HIPP when images with high valence content were processed, as compared to its concentration while processing images with low valence. In addition, significantly decreased levels of glutamate were found in the AMG when images with predominantly low valence content were processed, as compared to its concentration at baseline. The processing of face stimuli with anger/fear content (FaceMatch task) was accompanied with significantly decreased concentrations of GABA in the AMG and HIPP compared to its levels at the baseline. The processing of shapes on the other hand was accompanied with a significantly decreased concentration of the glutamate in the AMG as well as in the HIPP compared to the baseline. Finally, the performance of a nondeclarative memory task (weather prediction task—WPT) was associated with relatively large and opposite changes in the GABA levels compared to the baseline in the AMG (decrease) and the HIPP (increase). These data are relevant for showing an involvement of the amygdala and the hippocampus in emotional processing and provide additional neurochemical clues towards a more refined model of the functional circuitry of the human limbic system. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.