Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thermoelectric properties of PbTe-based materials driven near the ferroelectric phase transition from first principles

Title Thermoelectric properties of PbTe-based materials driven near the ferroelectric phase transition from first principles Author(s) Murphy, Aoife Rose Publication date 2017 Original citation Murphy, A. R. 2017. Thermoelectric properties of PbTe-based materials driven near the ferroelectric phase transition from first principles. PhD Thesis, University College Cork. Type of publication Doctoral thesis Rights © 2017, Aoife Rose Murphy. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Monoclonality of multifocal myxoid liposarcoma: confirmation by analysis of TLS-CHOP or EWS-CHOP rearrangements.

Multifocal presentation, defined as the presence of tumor at two or more anatomically separate sites, before the manifestation of disease in sites where sarcomas usually metastasize (e.g., lungs) occurs in about 1% of extremity soft tissue sarcomas (STSs). Debate still persists whether multifocal STSs represent an unusual pattern of metastasis or multiple separate primary tumors. Among STSs with multifocal presentation, myxoid liposarcoma is the predominant histological type. This subtype of liposarcoma contains the specific t(12;16) chromosomal translocation, which results in rearrangement of the TLS and CHOP genes that is clone specific at the DNA level. We, therefore, sought to address the question of clonality by molecular analysis in six patients who presented with either synchronous or metachronous multifocal myxoid liposarcoma. In all six cases, adequate frozen tumor was available for DNA extraction from at least two distinct anatomical sites. Southern blot analysis using CHOP, TLS, and EWS cDNA probes was performed on genomic DNA. Five cases contained a TLS-CHOP rearrangement, and one case had the variant EWS-CHOP fusion (seen in <5% of cases). The size of the rearranged CHOP fragment differed among the six patients, as expected, but was identical in all anatomically separate tumor samples from each patient. Likewise, the sizes of the rearranged bands observed with either the TLS or EWS probes supported the monoclonality of all cases. Our results confirm the monoclonal origin of multifocal myxoid liposarcoma, establishing the metastatic nature of distant soft tissue lesions in these cases. It remains unclear whether this unusual pattern of metastasis represents an intrinsic property of this subset of myxoid liposarcoma or merely a rare chance occurrence. The clinical outcomes observed in this small series suggest that the prognosis of multifocal myxoid liposarcoma is poor, regardless of its often bland or "low-grade" histological appearance.
Vector Representations for the Analysis and Design of Distributed Controls

We present novel methods of using vector diagrams of distributed control systems. A classic method is described and enhanced with four extensions, the benefit of three of them is demonstrated by examples. Our scenario is restricted to congestion control in computer networks, but we expect our results to be applicable to a much broader spectrum of control problems.
A study in play, pleasure and interaction design

This paper focuses on the design of pleasurably playful interfaces within an interactive art context. It describes the development of a framework of thirteen pleasures of play and outlines the application of this framework during the design process of three interactive artworks. These processes included both initial conceptual development stages and later user evaluation studies. The paper compares the artist's view of the pleasures that might be experienced in each work with the actual pleasures experienced by users during evaluation sessions. The results suggest that the pleasure framework is a useful tool to aid in the design of playful interfaces.
Effects of Watercress Containing Rutin and Rutin Alone on the Proliferation and Osteogenic Differentiation of Human Osteoblast-like MG-63 Cells

Most known osteoporosis medicines are effective for bone resorption, and so there is an increasing demand for medicines that stimulate bone formation. Watercress (N. officinale R. Br.) is widely used as a salad green and herbal remedy. This study analyzed a watercress extract using ultra-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry, and identified a rutin as one of its major constituents. Osteogenic-related assays were used to compare the effects of watercress containing rutin (WCR) and rutin alone on the proliferation and differentiation of human osteoblast-like MG-63 cells. The reported data are expressed as percentages relative to the control value (medium alone; assigned as 100%). WCR increased cell proliferation to 125.0±4.0% (mean±SD), as assessed using a cell viability assay, and increased the activity of alkaline phosphatase, an early differentiation marker, to 222.3±33.8%. In addition, WCR increased the expression of collagen type I, another early differentiation marker, to 149.2±2.8%, and increased the degree of mineralization, a marker of the late process of differentiation, to 122.9±3.9%. Rutin alone also increased the activity of ALP (to 154.4±12.2%), the expression of collagen type I (to 126.6±6.2%), and the degree of mineralization (to 112.3±5.0%). Daidzein, which is reported to stimulate bone formation, was used as a positive control; the effects of WCR on proliferation and differentiation were significantly greater than those of daidzein. These results indicate that WCR and rutin can both induce bone formation via the differentiation of MG-63 cells. This is the first study demonstrating the effectiveness of either WCR or rutin as an osteoblast stimulant.
RCN algorithms for the uniform generation of combinatorial structures

M Zito, I Pu, M Amos and A Gibbons, ``RNC algorithms for the uniform generation of combinatorial structures'', The Seventh Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA `96). ISBN-08987-13668, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 1 1996.
Last-Minute Bidding and the Rules for Ending Second-Price Auctions: Evidence from eBay and Amazon Auctions on the Internet

Auctions on the Internet provide a new source of data on how bidding is in uenced by the detailed rules of the auction. Here we study the second-price auctions run by eBay and Amazon, in which a bidder submits a reservation price and has this (maximum) price used to bid for him by proxy. That is, a bidder can submit his reservation price (called a proxy bid) early in the auction and have the resulting bid register as the minimum increment above the previous high bid. As subsequent reservation prices are submitted, the bid rises by the minimum increment until the second-highest submitted reservation price is exceeded. Hence, an early bid with a reservation price higher than any other submitted during the auction will win the auction and pay only the minimum increment above the second-highest submitted reservation price. eBay and Amazon use different rules for ending an auction. Auctions on eBay have a  xed end time (a “hard close”), while auctions on Amazon, which operate under otherwise similar rules, are automatically extended if necessary past the scheduled end time until ten minutes have passed without a bid. These different rules give bidders more reason to bid late on eBay than on Amazon.We  nd that this is re ected in the auction data: the fraction of bids submitted in the closing seconds of the auction is substantially larger in eBay than in Amazon, and more experience causes bidders to bid later on eBay, but earlier on Amazon. Last-minute bidding, a practice called “sniping,” arises despite advice from both auctioneers and sellers in eBay that bidders should simply submit their maximum willingness to pay, once, early in the auction. For example, eBay instructs bidders on the simple economics of second-price auctions, using an example of a winning early bid. They discuss last-minute bids on a page explaining that they will not accept complaints about sniping, as follows:
Alpha Helices Are More Robust to Mutations than Beta Strands

The rapidly increasing amount of data on human genetic variation has resulted in a growing demand to identify pathogenic mutations computationally, as their experimental validation is currently beyond reach. Here we show that alpha helices and beta strands differ significantly in their ability to tolerate mutations: helices can accumulate more mutations than strands without change, due to the higher numbers of inter-residue contacts in helices. This results in two patterns: a) the same number of mutations causes less structural change in helices than in strands; b) helices diverge more rapidly in sequence than strands within the same domains. Additionally, both helices and strands are significantly more robust than coils. Based on this observation we show that human missense mutations that change secondary structure are more likely to be pathogenic than those that do not. Moreover, inclusion of predicted secondary structure changes shows significant utility for improving upon state-of-the-art pathogenicity predictions.
A methodology for designing communication architectures for multiprocessor SoCs

Multiprocessor SoCs (MSoCs) for network and stream processing have to cope with growing speed and flexibility requirements of new complex packet processing tasks. Performance optimization of a homogenous network of CPUs in a certain application leads basically to optimization of CPUs interconnect and communication algorithms. Several on-chip communication architectures are compared with respect to their cost, simplicity of routing algorithms, and performance in collective communications. It is shown, that if group communication patterns are considered in certain proportions, the fat cube architecture rather than Octagonal architecture may have the best performance/cost figure. A methodology for designing efficient on-chip interconnects on regular group communication patterns is suggested. It may be useful if the system is targeted for specific class of applications.
Age-related differences in acceleration, maximum running speed, and repeated-sprint performance in young soccer players

Abstract We investigated age-related differences in the relationships among acceleration, maximum running speed, and repeated-sprint performance in 61 highly trained young male soccer players (Under 14, n = 14; Under 16, n = 22; Under 18, n = 25). We also examined the possible influence of anthropometry (stature, body mass, fat-free mass) and biological maturation (age at peak height velocity) on performance in those three sprint-running qualities. Players were tested for 10-m sprint (acceleration), flying 20-m sprint (maximum running speed), and 10 × 30-m sprint (repeated-sprint performance) times. Correlations between acceleration, maximum running speed, and repeated-sprint performance were positive and large to almost perfect (r = 0.55–0.96), irrespective of age group. There were age-based differences both in absolute performance in the three sprint-running qualities (Under 18 > Under 16 > Under 14; P < 0.001) and when body mass and fat-free mass were statistically controlled (P < 0.05). In contrast, all between-group differences disappeared after adjustment for age at peak height velocity (P > 0.05). The large correlations among acceleration, maximum running speed, and repeated-sprint performance in all age groups, as well as the disappearance of between-group differences when adjusted for estimated biological maturity, suggest that these physical qualities in young highly trained soccer players might be considered as a general quality, which is likely to be related to qualitative adaptations that accompany maturation.
Real-time tissue elastography in the diagnosis of autoimmune pancreatitis

Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) elastography distinguishes tissues on the basis of their specific consistency. The preoperative diagnosis of autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is of the utmost importance in order to avoid surgery. The aim of this prospective evaluation of five patients was to investigate the role of this new technique in the characterization of mass lesions caused by AIP, with histology as the gold standard. All five patients with AIP presented with a characteristic stiff elastographic pattern not only of the mass lesion but also of the surrounding pancreatic parenchyma, which was not found in 17 patients with ductal adenocarcinoma and 10 healthy subjects. EUS elastography of the pancreas shows a typical and unique finding with homogenous stiffness of the whole organ, and this distinguishes AIP from the circumscribed mass lesion in ductal adenocarcinoma.
Superluminal Caustics of Close, Rapidly Rotating Binary Microlenses

The two outer triangular caustics (regions of infinite magnification) of a close binary microlens move much faster than the components of the binary themselves, and can even exceed the speed of light. When ϵ ≳ 1, where ϵc is the caustic speed, the usual formalism for calculating the lens magnification breaks down. We develop a new formalism that makes use of the gravitational analog of the Liénard-Wiechert potential. We find that as the binary speeds up, the caustics undergo several related changes: First, their position in space drifts. Second, they rotate about their own axes so that they no longer have a cusp facing the binary center of mass. Third, they grow larger and dramatically so for ϵ ≫ 1. Fourth, they grow weaker roughly in proportion to their increasing size. Superluminal caustic-crossing events are probably not uncommon, but they are difficult to observe.
High-performance Ultraviolet Photodetectors Based on ZnO Nanostructures

Zinc Oxide nanowires were prepared on an Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) substrate by a hydrothermal method which is renowned for its simple, low cost, and low temperature techniques. These wires prepared with different reaction times were demonstrated to be utilized as UV photodetectors. The morphology, elemental compositions, and crystallization of ZnO nanowire structures were analyzed by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), X-Ray Spectroscopy (XPS), and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), respectively. The optical properties of the nanodevices were measured by using UVvis absorption spectrometer, and the properties of UV photodetectors were characterized by I-V curves. At a given bias voltage of 5 V, ZnO nanowire devices, prepared at the reaction time of 2 h, exhibited high photocurrent, high sensitivity, and fast response time to UV illumination as compared to the devices prepared at the reaction time of 5 h. A higher surface to volume ratio is the main contribution to those properties. These results suggest that the 2-hours ZnO nanowires exhibit great promise for the highly efficient UV
Cell redundancy in the zona-intact preimplantation mouse blastocyst: a light and electron microscope study of dead cells and their fate.

SUMMARY In the zona pellucida-intact 95 h post coitum mouse blastocyst, electron-microscopic studies reveal the presence, as a part of normal development, of 1-2 dead cells lying free on the surface of the inner cell mass (ICM) or trophoblast cells, and of 4-5 dead cells phagocytosed by ICM cells. Such dead cells are electron-dense and show characteristic chromatopyenosis of the nucleus, and swelling of the endoplasmic reticulum. In addition, 1-2 digestive vacuoles with granular contents and myelin figures are found, principally in ICM cells, and corresponding with basophilic bodies observed with the light microscope. The results are interpreted as indicating that a relatively large number (i.e. a minimum of 6-8, or approximately 10%) of blastocyst cells die and are phagocytosed and digested, usually by the ICM cells, but probably also by trophoblast cells. This process does not, however, affect the future differentiation of the ingesting cell. Simultaneously a small number of epithelial cells adjacent to the blastocyst die, either singly or in small groups. These findings confirm the view that previous reports of penetration of the uterine epithelium by 'primary invasive cells' originating in the ICM were due to confusion between two separate groups of dead cells, namely the embryonic dead cells of the TCM and the single dead cells in the adjacent uterine epithelium, which appear to be phagocytosed by trophoblast cells following loss of the zona pellucida.
Interpolation of sparse rational functions without knowing bounds on exponents

The authors present the first algorithm for the (black box) interpolation of t-sparse, n-variate, rational functions without knowing bounds on exponents of their sparse representation, with the number of queries independent of exponents. In fact, the algorithm uses O(nt/sup t/) queries to the black box, and it can be implemented for a fixed t in a polynomially bounded storage (or polynomial parallel time). <<ETX>>
Life Cycles of Communities in an Online Social Network

We look into the community evolution in the Cyworld guestbook data. We use the hierarchical link clustering (HLC) approach to identify communities. HLC allows nodes to belong to multiple communities in contrast to other community identification algorithms that are node-based and allow no overlap. We define the following six key events in community evolution: birth, death, merge, split, growth, and shrink. We present our analysis results in terms of the six events. We then investigate how community evolves in the evolving networks. Our work reveals the life cycle of communities in online social network. Wefirst shows that the life expectancy of large communities is much longer than that of small communities, and large proportion of community members change over time. Then we find that the distributions of new-born and died communities are close. We discover that the larger communities split into a larger number of pieces and the pieces are similar sized. We show that higher relative node overlap leads to Merge of two communities.
An Effective Contributory Re-Keying Approach to Compute Conference Key

Problem statement: With the explosive growth of and internet and web a pplications many emerging group-oriented distributed applications su ch as tele/video-conferencing, multiplayer games are based on group communication model that need security services such as privacy and data integrity Hence a secure distributed group key agreement is r equired to establish and authenticate a common group key for secure and private communication. There is a need for security services to provide group-oriented communication privacy and data integrity. It is important that members of the group can establish a common secret key for encrypting gr oup communication. A key tree approach has been proposed by many authors to distribute group key in such a way that the rekeying cost scales with the logarithm of the group size for a join or leave req uest. The efficiency of this key tree approach critically depends on whether the key tree remains balanced over time as members join or leaves Approach: Instead of performing individual re-keying operatio ns, an interval-based approach of re- keying is adopted in the proposed scheme. Results: In the proposed scheme Queue-merge algorithm is used for rekeying which substantially reduces the c omputation cost and communication cost. The comparison shows that queue merge algorithm performs better than Batch algorithm in terms of minimizing the key tree and presumes better node de nsity thereby reducing the computation cost. Conclusion: Performance comparison also shows reduced number of renewed nodes for various rekeying interval which reduces the communication cost.
Hardness of decision (R)LWE for any modulus

The decision Learning With Errors problem has proven an extremely flexible foundation for devising provably secure cryptographic primitives. LWE can be expressed in terms of linear algebra over Z/qZ. This modulus q is the subject of study of the present work. When q is prime and small, or when it is exponential and composite with small factors, LWE is known to be at least as hard as standard worst-case problems over euclidean lattices (sometimes using quantum reductions). The Ring Learning With Errors problem is a structured variant of LWE allowing for more compact keys and more efficient primitives. It is known to be at least as hard as standard worst-case problems restricted to so-called ideal lattices, but under even more restrictive arithmetic conditions on q. In this work, we prove that the arithmetic form of the modulus q is irrelevant to the computational hardness of LWE and RLWE. More precisely, we show that these problems are at least as hard as standard worst-case problems on lattices, under the unique condition that q is of polynomial bit-size. This result is most useful for adapting LWE-based cryptographic constructions to the RLWE setting. Among others, this allows us to derive the first Identity-Based Encryption scheme of quasi-optimal performance proven secure under standard worst-case lattice assumptions, in the standard model. Other applications include authentication, functional encryption and traitor tracing.
Information leakage of heterogeneous encoded correlated sequences over an eavesdropped channel

Correlated sources are present in communication systems where protocols ensure that there is some predetermined information for sources. Here correlated sources across an eavesdropped channel that incorporate a heterogeneous encoding scheme and their effect on the information leakage when some channel information and a source have been wiretapped is investigated. The information leakage bounds for this scenario are provided. Further, an implementation method using a matrix partition approach is described.
Performance Characterization of Quorum-Consensus Algorithms for Replicated Data

The authors develop a model and define performance measures for a replicated data system that makes use of a quorum-consensus algorithm to maintain consistency. They consider two measures: the proportion of successfully completed transactions in systems where a transaction aborts if data is not available, and the mean response time in systems where a transaction waits until data becomes available. Based on the model, the authors show that for some quorum assignment there is an optimal degree of replication beyond which performance degrades. There exist other quorum assignments which have no optimal degree of replication. The authors also derive optimal read and write quorums which maximize the proportion of successful transactions. >
Detection of Early Markers for Sjögren Syndrome in Dry Eye Patients

Purpose: The purpose of this case series was to report the detection of early markers for Sjögren syndrome (SS) in 3 patients with chronic dry eye who previously tested negative for classic SS autoantibodies. Methods: Cases of 3 patients with a history of dry eye are described. Current assessments in a cornea/ocular surface specialist clinical setting and an ocular medical history review are presented in conjunction with laboratory testing for the presence of novel autoantibody markers linked to the early stages of SS. Results: All 3 dry eye patients described in this case series tested negative for the classic autoantibody markers [Sjögren syndrome type A (SS-A) and Sjögren syndrome type B (SS-B)]. However, autoantibodies were detected in these patients indicating a likely diagnosis of early-stage SS. All patients were referred to a rheumatologist for further evaluation and treatment. Conclusions: Patients with a history of dry eye signs/symptoms that persist despite treatment (male and female patients) may benefit from a serological evaluation for SS that is capable of detecting not only the traditional SS-A and SS-B markers, but also the recently identified autoantibodies.