Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and development of the advanced LIGO monolithic fused silica suspension

The detection of gravitational waves remains one of the most challenging prospects faced by experimental physicists. One of the most significant limits to the sensitivity of current, and future, long-baseline interferometric gravitational wave detectors is thermal displacement noise of the test masses and their suspensions. Suspension thermal noise will be an important noise source at operating frequencies between approximately 10 and 30 Hz, and it results from a combination of thermoelastic damping, surface loss and bulk loss associated with the suspension fibres, and weld loss from their attachment. Its effects can be reduced by minimizing thermoelastic loss and optimizing pendulum dilution factor via the appropriate choice of geometry of the suspension fibre and attachment geometry. This paper will discuss the design and fabrication of a prototype of the fused silica suspension stage for use in the advanced LIGO (aLIGO) detector network, analysing in detail the design of the fused silica attachment pieces (ears), together with the suspension assembly techniques. We also present a full thermal noise analysis of the prototype suspension, taking into account for the first time the precise shape of the actual fibres used, and weld loss. We shall demonstrate the suitability of this suspension for installation into aLIGO.
Sodium New Houttuyfonate Induces Apoptosis of Breast Cancer Cells via ROS/PDK1/AKT/GSK3β Axis

Simple Summary Breast cancer treatment has long been a problem plaguing women’s health. In order to explore whether sodium new houttuyfonate (SNH) has a potential therapeutic effect on breast cancer, this study jointly demonstrated that SNH has a significant apoptotic effect on breast cancer through biogenic analysis and research trials. This effect is achieved by promoting the excessive accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), inducing mitochondrial damage, regulating the aggregation of apoptotic proteins near mitochondria, and targeting the PDK1-AKT-GSK3β pathway. This study demonstrated the potential therapeutic effect of SNH and provided a reference for the application of SNH in breast cancer. Abstract Background: Sodium new houttuyfonate (SNH) has been reported to have anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, and anti-cancer effects. However, few studies have investigated the effect of SNH on breast cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate whether SNH has therapeutic potential for targeting breast cancer. Methods: Immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis were used to examine the expression of proteins, flow cytometry was used to detect cell apoptosis and ROS levels, and transmission electron microscopy was used to observe mitochondria. Results: Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between breast cancer-related gene expression profiles (GSE139038 and GSE109169) from GEO DataSets were mainly involved in the immune signaling pathway and the apoptotic signaling pathway. According to in vitro experiments, SNH significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasiveness of MCF-7 (human cells) and CMT-1211 (canine cells) and promoted apoptosis. To explore the reason for the above cellular changes, it was found that SNH induced the excessive production of ROS, resulting in mitochondrial impairment, and then promoted apoptosis by inhibiting the activation of the PDK1-AKT-GSK3β pathway. Tumor growth, as well as lung and liver metastases, were suppressed under SNH treatment in a mouse breast tumor model. Conclusions: SNH significantly inhibited the proliferation and invasiveness of breast cancer cells and may have significant therapeutic potential in breast cancer.
An exact analysis for beam centroid position monitors used in pulsed intense relativistic electron‐beam experiments

Azimuthal arrays of B‐dot loops are often used to measure the time‐resolved beam centroid location of a pulsed, intense relativistic electron beam propagating in a metallic drift tube. A new analytical analysis is presented which can solve for the beam centroid position exactly, even for large radial displacements near the drift tube wall. This exact method is compared with the traditional first‐order analysis.
Progression in immunotherapy for advanced prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is one of the most common malignant cancers of the male genitourinary system and has high morbidity and mortality. Currently, treatment modalities for localized prostate cancer focus mainly on radical prostatectomy or radical radiation therapy. Some patients still experience disease recurrence or progression after these treatments, while others are already at an advanced stage or have metastases at the time of diagnosis. With the continuous development and progress of medicine in recent years, immunotherapy has become a revolutionary cancer treatment, and has achieved remarkable accomplishments in the treatment of hematologic malignancies. A variety of immunotherapies have also appeared in the field of advanced prostate cancer treatment, including therapeutic vaccines and immune checkpoint therapies. Despite the discrepancy between the results of some immunotherapy studies, immunotherapy for prostate cancer has shown some initial success, especially in combination immunotherapies. Currently, immunotherapy is mainly used in advanced prostate cancer, especially in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. However, with the development of more clinical trials of immunotherapy, more evidence will be provided supporting the rational application of immunotherapy in the future.
Combination of Cellulose Derivatives and Chitosan-Based Polymers to Investigate the Effect of Permeation Enhancers Added to In Situ Nasal Gels for the Controlled Release of Loratadine and Chlorpheniramine

The purpose of the study is to develop and assess mucoadhesive in situ nasal gel formulations of loratadine and chlorpheniramine maleate to advance the bioavailability of the drug as compared to its conventional dosage forms. The influence of various permeation enhancers, such as EDTA (0.2% w/v), sodium taurocholate (0.5% w/v), oleic acid (5% w/v), and Pluronic F 127 (10% w/v), on the nasal absorption of loratadine and chlorpheniramine from in situ nasal gels containing different polymeric combinations, such as hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, Carbopol 934, sodium carboxymethylcellulose, and chitosan, is studied. Among these permeation enhancers, sodium taurocholate, Pluronic F127 and oleic acid produced a noticeable increase in the loratadine in situ nasal gel flux compared with in situ nasal gels without permeation enhancer. However, EDTA increased the flux slightly, and in most cases, the increase was insignificant. However, in the case of chlorpheniramine maleate in situ nasal gels, the permeation enhancer oleic acid only showed a noticeable increase in flux. Sodium taurocholate and oleic acid seems to be a better and efficient enhancer, enhancing the flux > 5-fold compared with in situ nasal gels without permeation enhancer in loratadine in situ nasal gels. Pluronic F127 also showed a better permeation, increasing the effect by >2-fold in loratadine in situ nasal gels. In chlorpheniramine maleate in situ nasal gels with EDTA, sodium taurocholate and Pluronic F127 were equally effective, enhancing chlorpheniramine maleate permeation. Oleic acid has a better effect as permeation enhancer in chlorpheniramine maleate in situ nasal gels and showed a maximum permeation enhancement of >2-fold.
Dimensions of inattention: Cognitive, behavioral, and affective consequences

Inattention to one’s on-going task leads to well-documented cognitive, behavioral, and physiological consequences. At the same time, the reliable association between mind-wandering and negative mood has suggested that there are affective consequences to task inattention as well. We examined this potential relationship between inattention and mood in the following study. Six hundred and fifty-five participants completed self-report questionnaires related to inattentive thinking (i.e., attentional lapses, daydreaming, mindfulness, rumination, reflection, worry, postevent processing, inattentiveness, and counterfactual thinking), a questionnaire about depressive symptoms, and a questionnaire about anxiety symptoms. First, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify potential underlying constructs of types of inattentive thinking. Using ordinary least squares extraction and Oblimin rotation, a three-factor model demonstrated suitable fit, broadly representing mind-wandering/inattentive consequences, repetitive negative thinking, and reflective/introspective thinking. Second, after eliminating measures that did not strongly load on any factor, structural equation modeling was conducted and found that the relationship between mind-wandering and depression was partially explained by repetitive negative thinking, whereas the relationship between mind-wandering and anxiety was fully explained by repetitive negative thinking. The present findings suggest that understanding how inattentive thoughts are interrelated not only influences mood and affect but also reveals important considerations of intentionality, executive functioning, and qualitative styles of these thoughts.
SRL-TR2: A Safe Reinforcement Learning Based TRajectory TRacker Framework

This paper aims to solve the trajectory tracking control problem for an autonomous vehicle based on reinforcement learning methods. Existing reinforcement learning approaches have found limited successful applications on safety-critical tasks in the real world mainly due to two challenges: 1) sim-to-real transfer; 2) closed-loop stability and safety concern. In this paper, we propose an actor-critic-style framework SRL-TR2, in which the RL-based TRajectory TRackers are trained under the safety constraints and then deployed to a full-size vehicle as the lateral controller. To improve the generalization ability, we adopt a light-weight adapter State and Action Space Alignment (SASA) to establish mapping relations between the simulation and reality. To address the safety concern, we leverage an expert strategy to take over the control when the safety constraints are not satisfied. Hence, we conduct safe explorations during the training process and improve the stability of the policy. The experiments show that our agents can achieve one-shot transfer across simulation scenarios and unseen realistic scenarios, finishing the field tests with average running time less than 10 ms/step and average lateral error less than 0.1 m under the speed ranging from 12 km/h to 18 km/h. A video of the field tests is available at https://youtu.be/pjWcN_fV24g.
Aluminium substitution in Sb2S3 nanorods enhances the stability of the microstructure and high-rate capability in the alloying regime

Alloy anodes, with twice the capacity of graphite, are promising for next-generation lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, poor rate-capability and cycling stability, mainly due to pulverization, have limited their application. By constraining the cutoff voltage to the alloying regime (1 V to 10 mV vs. Li/Li+), we show that Sb1.9Al0. 1S3 nanorods provide excellent electrochemical performance, with an initial capacity of ∼450 mA h g−1 and excellent cycling stability with 63% retention (capacity ∼240 mA h g−1 after 1000 cycles at 5C-rate), unlike 71.4 mA h g−1 after 500 cycles observed in full-regime cycling. When conversion cycling is also involved the capacity degrades faster (<20% retention after 200 cycles) irrespective of Al doping. The contribution of alloy storage to total capacity is always larger than the conversion storage indicating the superiority of the former. The formation of crystalline Sb(Al) is noted in Sb1.9Al0. 1S3, unlike amorphous Sb in Sb2S3. Retention of the nanorod microstructure in Sb1.9Al0. 1S3 despite the volume expansion enhances the performance. On the contrary, the Sb2S3 nanorod electrode gets pulverized and the surface shows microcracks. Percolating Sb nanoparticles buffered by the Li2S matrix and other polysulfides enhance the performance of the electrode. These studies pave the way for high-energy and high-power density LIBs with alloy anodes.
Detecting homogeneous segments in DNA sequences by using hidden Markov models

In recent years there has been a rapid growth in the amount of DNA being sequenced and in its availability through genetic databases. Statistical techniques which identify structure within these sequences can be of considerable assistance to molecular biologists particularly when they incorporate the discrete nature of changes caused by evolutionary processes. This paper focuses on the detection of homogeneous segments within heterogeneous DNA sequences. In particular, we study an intron from the chimpanzee α‐fetoprotein gene; this protein plays an important role in the embryonic development of mammals. We present a Bayesian solution to this segmentation problem using a hidden Markov model implemented by Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. We consider the important practical problem of specifying informative prior knowledge about sequences of this type. Two Gibbs sampling algorithms are contrasted and the sensitivity of the analysis to the prior specification is investigated. Model selection and possible ways to overcome the label switching problem are also addressed. Our analysis of intron 7 identifies three distinct homogeneous segment types, two of which occur in more than one region, and one of which is reversible.
Spectroscopic observations of the water‐vapour content of the stratosphere

The water-vapour content of the stratosphere has been deduced from records of the solar spectrum observed from a Canberra aircraft at altitudes up to 48,000 ft. The spectral region 3,790-3,860 cm−1 in the 2·7 μ band has been separated into four groups of absorption lines whose rates of growth have been studied. Measurements in an altitude chamber of the absorption of very small paths of water vapour have been used to interpret the aircraft measurements in terms of absolute values of (pressure X quantity of water vapour)½. Spectroscopic observations have been compared with measurements made by the frost-point hygrometer. The overall results show that the water-vapour content in a vertical column above 45,000 ft over southern England is about 4·5 μ, corresponding to a mixing ratio of 3 × 10−6, if this is assumed constant above the height of observation.
Microsphere plate detectors used with a compact Mott polarimeter for time-of-flight studies

A compact retarding-potential Mott polarimeter combined with microsphere plates (MSP) as electron detectors was built to perform spin-resolved time-of-flight electron spectroscopy. The comparison of the performance of MSP and channeltron detectors shows that the MSP detector has a better time resolution but a lower efficiency. The overall time resolution of the system was determined to be 350 ps using synchrotron radiation pulses.
Adjustment to disease and quality of life in people with vascular Ehlers-Danlos and Loeys-Dietz syndromes: A mixed-method study

Background Vascular Ehlers-Danlos (vEDS) and Loeys-Dietz syndromes (LDS) are hereditary disorders of connective tissue having severe vascular complications (HDCTv) which lead to an increased risk of premature death. Little is known about the impact of the disease in patient’s daily life. Method Sixteen HDCTv patients (vEDS = 9 and LDS = 7), 16 age and sex-matched hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome patients (hEDS) and 18 healthy subjects (HS), responded to self-questionnaires assessing psychosocial adjustment, quality of life (QoL), anxiety, depression, pain, fatigue and sleep problems. Patients with HDCTv were also interviewed in order to explore qualitatively their experience with the disease. Results Compared with HS, patients with HDCTv scored significantly higher on anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep problems, and lower on QoL. Most HDCTv patients (93.8%) have optimal psychosocial adjustment. In addition, HDCTv patients scored higher on QoL and psychosocial adjustment, but lower in pain, fatigue, sleep problems, and depressive symptoms than hEDS patients. Four main themes were identified in qualitative analyses: living with HDCTv, knowledge/ignorance of the disease, health behaviors/self-care and coping strategies. Conclusion Our results suggest that despite the negative impact of HDCTv on the patients’ daily lives, overall, they present an optimal disease adjustment which points to appropriate coping strategies. More research in psychosocial aspects of people with these rare diseases are needed to confirm these results and better understand their needs.
Qualitative analysis of Bi‐directional Associative Memory with time delay

Bi-directional associative memory models are two-layer heteroassociative networks. In this paper, axonal signal transmission delay is introduced into BAM model yielding a class of generalized BAM networks. Conditions for the existence of equilibrium points, boundedness of trajectories and global stability are emphatically discussed for BAM with above-mentioned time delay. Circuit architecture of BAM with time delay is given. Correctness for our results is verified by using some examples and computer simulations. The obtained results have leading significance in the design and application of BAM networks. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Lipoprotein(a) and Its Autoantibodies in Association with Calcific Aortic Valve Stenosis

Aortic valve stenosis is the most common valvular heart disease in the Western world. Lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) is an independent risk factor of coronary heart disease (CHD) and calcific aortic valve stenosis (CAVS). The aim of this study was to assess the role of Lp(a) and its autoantibodies [autoAbs] in CAVS in patients with and without CHD. We included 250 patients (mean age 69 ± 3 years, males 42%) and divided them into three groups. There were two groups of patients with CAVS depending on the presence (group 1) or absence of CHD (group 2). The control group included the patients without CHD or CAVS. According to logistic regression analysis, levels of Lp(a), IgM autoAbs to oxidized Lp(a) (oxLp(a)), and age were independent predictors of CAVS. A concomitant increase in Lp(a) level (≥30 mg/dL) and a decrease in IgM autoAbs concentration (<9.9 lab. Units) are associated with CAVS with an odds ratio (OR) of 6.4, p < 0.01, and with CAVS and CHD with an OR of 17.3, p < 0.001. IgM autoantibodies to oxLp(a) are associated with calcific aortic valve stenosis regardless of Lp(a) concentration and other risk factors. Higher Lp(a) and lower IgM autoantibodies to oxLp(a) levels are associated with a much higher risk of calcific aortic valve stenosis.
Intracellular behavior of Nocardia seriolae and its apoptotic effect on RAW264.7 macrophages

Nocardia seriolae, an intracellular gram-positive pathogen, is prone to infecting immunocompromised and surface-damaged fish, causing serious losses to the aquaculture industry. Although a previous study has demonstrated that N. seriolae infects macrophages, the persistence of this bacterium in macrophages has not been well characterized. To address this gap, we used the macrophage cell line RAW264.7, to investigate the interactions between N. seriolae and macrophages and deciphered the intracellular survival mechanism of N. seriolae. Confocal and light microscopy revealed that N. seriolae entered macrophages 2 hours post-inoculation (hpi), were phagocytosed by macrophages at 4–8 hpi, and induced the formation of multinucleated macrophages by severe fusion at 12 hpi. Flow cytometry, evaluation of mitochondrial membrane potential, release of lactate dehydrogenase, and observation of the ultrastructure of macrophages revealed that apoptosis was induced in the early infection stage and inhibited in the middle and later periods of infection. Additionally, the expression of Bcl-2, Bax, Cyto-C, Caspase-3, Capase-8, and Caspase-9 was induced at 4 hpi, and then decreased at 6–8 hpi, illustrating that N. seriolae infection induces the activation of extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways in macrophages, followed by the inhibition of apoptosis to survive inside the cells. Furthermore, N. seriolae inhibits the production of reactive oxygen species and releases large amounts of nitric oxide, which persists in macrophages during infection. The present study provides the first comprehensive insight into the intracellular behavior of N. seriolae and its apoptotic effect on macrophages and may be important for understanding the pathogenicity of fish nocardiosis.
Assessment of Radiation-Induced Soft Errors on Lightweight Cryptography Algorithms Running on a Resource-Constrained Device

Most safety-critical edge-computing devices rely on lightweight cryptography (LWC) algorithms to provide security at minimum power and performance overhead. LWC algorithms are traditionally embedded as a hardware component, but with the advance of the Internet of Things (IoT), emerging firmware is more likely to support cryptography algorithms to comply with different security levels and industry standards. This is the first work to present the soft error assessment of five cryptography algorithms executing in a low-power microprocessor running under neutron radiation, considering electronic code book (ECB) and counter (CTR) mode of operation implementations. Results obtained from two neutron radiation tests suggest that: 1) the NOEKEON algorithm gives the best relative soft error reliability, performance, power efficiency, and memory footprint utilization tradeoffs between the five algorithms considering both ECB and CTR implementations and 2) cryptography solutions based on the CTR mode of operation present better FIT rate for silent data corruption (SDC) and crash with respect to ECB implementations.
Ceramic Materials for Biomedical Applications: An Overview on Properties and Fabrication Processes

A growing interest in creating advanced biomaterials with specific physical and chemical properties is currently being observed. These high-standard materials must be capable to integrate into biological environments such as the oral cavity or other anatomical regions in the human body. Given these requirements, ceramic biomaterials offer a feasible solution in terms of mechanical strength, biological functionality, and biocompatibility. In this review, the fundamental physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of the main ceramic biomaterials and ceramic nanocomposites are drawn, along with some primary related applications in biomedical fields, such as orthopedics, dentistry, and regenerative medicine. Furthermore, an in-depth focus on bone-tissue engineering and biomimetic ceramic scaffold design and fabrication is presented.