Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
POEtic-cubes: acquisition of new qualia through apperception using a bio-inspired electronic tissue

In this paper we shall present the research process towards an artistic installation, called POEtic-Cubes, that is constituted by nine autonomous robots monitored by the POEtic electronic tissue (bio-inspired hardware with adaptive features). The main goal of our research is to approach the processes involved in the acquisition of new qualia, so that the installation is being conceived for this purpose. The installation mimics the cellular behavior during the mitosis and the genotype to phenotype mapping processes, being these in charge of managing the development and the adaptation of an individual to the environment. We relate this adaptation principle, a fundamental step in the evolutionary growth of the species, to the evolutionary process of human consciousness, and we concentrate in its apperception mechanism that is used to generate new qualia.
DNA content of rectal scrapings from individuals at low and high risk for the development of colorectal cancer. A feasibility study

Scrapings of superficial rectal mucosa were collected from 31 patients with colorectal carcinoma, 66 patients with sporadic adenoma, and 53 control subjects with no personal or family history of colorectal cancer. The DNA ploidy level and proliferative patterns of each specimen were analyzed by flow cytometry (FCM). A GMS index, calculated as the ratio of G2+M:S, was found to be significantly lower in control subjects than in any of the high‐risk groups studied. Aneuploidy was more prevalent in rectal scrapings from cancer patients and adenoma patients than in those from control subjects. Aneuploid cell populations were detected in apparently normal rectal scrapings from two control subjects. Some high‐risk individuals (i.e., cancer patients and patients with adenomas and a family history of cancer) exhibited higher proportions of tetraploid (designated G2/M) cells and a higher G2/M:S phase ratio than control subjects. The results accumulated thus far show that the rectal scraping procedure is safe and easy to perform. Our limited findings give hope that the DNA content analysis of cells obtained by rectal scraping may eventually prove useful in mass screening for colorectal cancer risk. However, definitive evaluation will require further refinement and elaboration of analytic technique and testing on more patients at various levels of predetermined risk. Cancer 64:2579–2584, 1989.
Simulation of plasma potential and ion energies in magnetron sputtering

Abstract From experimental findings of magnetron sputtering processes, it is well known that the flux and energy distribution of ions at the substrate strongly depend on the operation mode of the electric power source. In reactive magnetron sputtering processes, this has a major impact on the properties of deposited films such as morphology, crystalline structure and etching behaviour. Thus, in the development of coated products with improved properties, it is an issue to maintain a tailored and reproducible ion energy distribution at the substrate in industrial sputtering coaters. We address this issue via particle-in-cell Monte-Carlo (PIC-MC) simulations on a two-dimensional cross-sectional model of magnetron sputter sources within our in-line sputter coater, whereas DC, MF and RF mode are assumed as different power supply operation modes. For each mode, the simulations reveal the relevant ion creation mechanisms as well as the formation of the electric potential distributions. From the simulation data, the respective ion energy distribution functions are extracted near the substrate and compared with empirically known data. The PIC-MC framework allows for simulation based tuning of industrial sputter coaters with respect to tailored film growth conditions, which will be an issue of future work.
Review on Semi-Fragile Watermarking Algorithms for Content Authentication of Digital Images

With the popularity of network and the continuous development of multimedia technology, saving of network bandwidth and copyright protection of multimedia content have gradually attracted people’s attention. The fragile watermark for integrity authentication of image data and protection of copyright has become a hotspot. In the storage and transmission process, image data must be compressed to save network bandwidth. As a result, semi-fragile watermarking techniques, which can be used to distinguish common image processing operations from malicious tampering, are emerging. In this paper, semi-fragile watermarking algorithms for image authentication are surveyed. The basic principles and characteristics about semi-fragile watermarking algorithms are introduced, and several kinds of attack behaviors are also included. Aiming at several typical image-authentication algorithms, advantages and disadvantages are analyzed, and evaluation indexes of various algorithms are compared. Finally, we analyze the key points and difficulties in the study on semi-fragile watermarking algorithms, and the direction about future development is prospected.
Communicating Forgiveness in Friendships and Dating Relationships

Retrospective accounts of transgression and forgiveness situations in ongoing friendships and dating relationships were coded based on Kelley's (1998) three forms of forgiveness granting (direct, indirect, and conditional). Across the sample, indirect forgiveness was reported most frequently, followed by direct and conditional forgiveness. Forgiveness-granting tendencies varied by relationship type, as friends reported more instances of indirect forgiveness than did dating partners, and dating partners reported more instances of conditional forgiveness than did friends. For both relationship types, transgressions of increasing severity and blameworthiness tended to be forgiven indirectly or conditionally. An additional focus of this study was ongoing negative affect (ONA) that persists after forgiveness has been communicated to a transgressor. ONA was salient for about 22% of participants, was positively related to transgression severity and was negatively related to relational satisfaction. Conditional forgivers reported higher levels of ONA than did direct or indirect forgivers.
Efficient 2-Approximation Algorithms for Computing 2-Connected Steiner Minimal Networks

For an undirected and weighted graph G = (V, E) and a terminal set S ⊆ V , the 2-connected Steiner minimal network (SMN) problem requires to compute a minimum-weight subgraph of G in which all terminals are 2-connected to each other. This problem has important applications in design of survivable networks and fault-tolerant communication, and is known MAXSNP-hard [7], a harder subclass of NP-hard problems for which no polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) is known. This paper presents an efficient algorithm of O(|V|2|S|3) time for computing a 2-vertex connected Steiner network (2VSN) whose weight is bounded by two times of the optimal solution 2-vertex connected SMN (2VSMN). It compares favorably with the currently known 2-approximation solution to the 2VSMN problem based on that to the survivable network design problem [10], [16], with a time complexity reduction of O(|V|5|E|7) for strongly polynomial time and O(|V|5γ) for weakly polynomial time where -y is determined by the sizes of input. Our algorithm applies a novel greedy approach to generate a 2VSN through progressive improvement on a set of vertex-disjoint shortest path pairs incident with each terminal of S. The algorithm can be directly deployed to solve the 2-edge connected SMN problem at the same approximation ratio within time O(|V|2|S|2). To the best of our knowledge, this result presents currently the most efficient 2-approximation algorithm for the 2-connected Steiner minimal network problem.
Pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment: A critical review of the evidence for health effects in fish

The authors review the current data on the presence and reported biological effects in fish of some of the most commonly detected pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment; namely nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), fibrates, β-blockers, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), azoles, and antibiotics. Reported biological effects in fish in the laboratory have often been shown to be in accordance with known effects of pharmaceuticals in mammals. Water concentrations at which such effects have been reported, however, are generally, between μg L−1 and mg L−1, typically at least 1 order of magnitude higher than concentrations normally found in surface waters (ng L−1). There are exceptions to this, however, as for the case of synthetic oestrogens, which can induce biological effects in the low ng L−1 range. Although generally effect levels for pharmaceuticals are higher than those found in the environment, the risks to wild fish populations have not been thoroughly characterised, and there has been a lack of consideration given to the likely chronic nature of the exposures, or the potential for mixture effects. As global consumption of pharmaceuticals rises, an inevitable consequence is an increased level of contamination of surface and ground waters with these biologically active drugs, and thus in turn a greater potential for adverse effects in aquatic wildlife.
Dissolution of Alumina, Sintering, and Crystallization in Glass Ceramic Composites for LTCC

Sintering and microstructure evolution of alkali-free calcium–alumo–borosilicate glass/α-Al2O3 composites (mean particle size ca. 2 μm) for low-temperature cofired ceramics were studied during heating at 5 K/min by heating microscopy, thermal analysis (DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and electron microscopy (SEM). Composites fully densify at ≈830°C, not essentially influenced by the dissolution of alumina and glass crystallization. Thus wollastonite, as first crystalline phase, was detectable at 840°C. Above 900°C, a pronounced crystallization of anorthite is evident, reaching 60 wt% at 1050°C. Rietveld analyses of XRD data revealed that anorthite precipitates at the expenses of alumina, which declines from ≈33 to <10 wt%, and wollastonite, which fully declines from its maximum of ≈19 wt%. Based on XRD, we discuss the evolution of crystal mass fractions, the residual glass composition, the glass viscosity, and the effective shear viscosity of the composites under study during heating.
Sliding mode control of modified Sheppard-Taylor PFC converter

In this paper, a modified power factor correction (PFC) converter based on Sheppard-Taylor PFC converter is proposed, and operation principle of this converter is studied. Compared with conventional Sheppard-Taylor converter, proposed converter has many advantages such as less ripple of input current and increased output voltage, which improves Sheppard-Taylor converter operation considerably. Finally, sliding mode control is applied to proposed converter and obtained results are studied.
Some recent developments in SPM of crystalline polymers

Some recent advances in the application of atomic force microscopy to crystalline polymers are detailed. Ultra-high resolution imaging of crystal surfaces, combined with the analysis of computer generated Connolly surfaces, enables the unambiguous identification of features on the cellulose crystal surface at near-atomic resolution. The electronic enhancement of the quality factor of the cantilever when tapping in liquids enables a considerable improvement in force sensitivity to be obtained, allowing the fully saturated surface of an isotactic polystyrene gel to be imaged under the solvating molecule, at nanometre resolution. A series of experiments are detailed in which processes such as crystallization, crystal thickening and crystal deformation are followed in situ, in real time, providing significant new insights into long standing problems in polymer science.
The Lengths of Admixture Tracts

The distribution of admixture tract lengths has received considerable attention, in part because it can be used to infer the timing of past gene flow events between populations. It is commonly assumed that these lengths can be modeled as independently and identically distributed (iid) exponential random variables. This assumption is fundamental for many popular methods that analyze admixture using hidden Markov models. We compare the expected distribution of admixture tract lengths under a number of population-genetic models to the distribution predicted by the Wright–Fisher model with recombination. We show that under the latter model, the assumption of iid exponential tract lengths does not hold for recent or for ancient admixture events and that relying on this assumption can lead to false positives when inferring the number of admixture events. To further investigate the tract-length distribution, we develop a dyadic interval-based stochastic process for generating admixture tracts. This representation is useful for analyzing admixture tract-length distributions for populations with recent admixture, a scenario in which existing models perform poorly.
Childhood Obesity: Trends and Potential Causes

The increase in childhood obesity over the past several decades, together with the associated health problems and costs, is raising grave concern among health care professionals, policy experts, children's advocates, and parents. Patricia Anderson and Kristin Butcher document trends in children's obesity and examine the possible underlying causes of the obesity epidemic. They begin by reviewing research on energy intake, energy expenditure, and "energy balance," noting that children who eat more "empty calories" and expend fewer calories through physical activity are more likely to be obese than other children. Next they ask what has changed in children's environment over the past three decades to upset this energy balance equation. In particular, they examine changes in the food market, in the built environment, in schools and child care settings, and in the role of parents—paying attention to the timing of these changes. Among the changes that affect children's energy intake are the increasing availability of energy-dense, high-calorie foods and drinks through schools. Changes in the family, particularly an increase in dual-career or single-parent working families, may also have increased demand for food away from home or pre-prepared foods. A host of factors have also contributed to reductions in energy expenditure. In particular, children today seem less likely to walk to school and to be traveling more in cars than they were during the early 1970s, perhaps because of changes in the built environment. Finally, children spend more time viewing television and using computers. Anderson and Butcher find no one factor that has led to increases in children's obesity. Rather, many complementary changes have simultaneously increased children's energy intake and decreased their energy expenditure. The challenge in formulating policies to address children's obesity is to learn how best to change the environment that affects children's energy balance.
Measurement of seizure freedom in adjunctive therapy studies in refractory partial epilepsy: the levetiracetam experience.

PURPOSE To assess the advantages and disadvantages of six methodologies used in calculating seizure freedom rates in placebo-controlled, adjunctive therapy trials of new antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in partial epilepsy, and two methodologies for long-term follow-up studies. METHODS Data from levetiracetam trials were used to illustrate the impact of different methodologies on seizure freedom rates. Seizure-freedom data for several new AEDs were identified from the published medical literature using MEDLINE and from a recent comprehensive textbook. RESULTS Most randomized, placebo-controlled add-on clinical trials of new AEDs contain little or no information about seizure freedom. Importantly, the methodology used can profoundly affect results when calculating seizure-free rates. Seizure freedom data should be reported as well as the methodology used. The minimum duration for assessing seizure freedom should be the entire stable dose period in short-term trials and at least six months for long-term follow-up studies. It is proposed that the seizure freedom rates be calculated and reported with at least two different methodologies, one that considers patients withdrawing from treatment without having had a seizure as successes, and one that considers the same patients as failures. For an effective and well-tolerated AED, seizure freedom rates will be consistent across the two methodologies. CONCLUSIONS Seizure freedom is the ultimate goal of AED therapy and should be reported for all clinical trials. Methodological differences among the few clinical studies reporting seizure freedom rates make it difficult to compare results across trials. Improved reporting of methodologies and seizure-free rates is warranted.
Ascending Price Vickrey Auctions for General Valuations

Ascending price auctions typically involve a single price path with buyers paying their final bid price. Using this traditional definition, no ascending price auction can achieve the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) outcome for general private valuations in the combinatorial auction setting. We relax this definition by allowing discounts to buyers from the final price of the auction (or alternatively, calculating the discounts dynamically during the auction) while still maintaining a single price path. Using a notion called universal competitive equilibrium prices, shown to be necessary and sufficient to achieve the VCG outcome using ascending price auctions, we define a broad class of ascending price combinatorial auctions in which truthful bidding by buyers is an ex post Nash equilibrium. Any auction in this class achieves the VCG outcome and ex post efficiency for general valuations. We define two specific auctions in this class by generalizing two known auctions in the literature [11, 24].
The process of serendipity in knowledge work

While serendipity is generally considered a spark for innovation and new knowledge, the triggers for serendipity appear infinite and consequently information systems' support for serendipity has been difficult to realize. Research to date has tended to focus only on supplying users with unexpected triggers for serendipity (e.g., embedded links in results). We adapt a model of the serendipitous process that examines serendipity more holistically. Using previously collected data, we focus on understanding the precipitating conditions that must be present to facilitate serendipity. Results suggest that serendipity occurs during social networking and active learning, and more specifically in the act of exploratory search. Results also suggest that serendipity is not always instant -- the usefulness of triggers may not be immediately apparent and a period of incubation is sometimes necessary before recognition of the serendipitous nature of a latent trigger is attained. Implications for the design of information systems are explored and support for the incubation period is discussed.
Evaluation of the microstructure and melting behavior of drawn polypropylene fibers with a microthermal analyzer

The strong correlation of melting behavior with the microstructure of original and zone-drawn isotactic polypropylene fibers was evaluated by microthermal analysis (micro-TA) combined with wide-angle X-ray diffraction analysis. The crystal structure of both the original and zone-drawn fibers was a monoclinic α-form with a ∼ 0.64 nm, b ∼ 2.03 nm, and c ∼ 0.65 nm. In contrast to the absence of any oriented polymer molecules in the original fiber, the polymer molecules in the zone-drawn fiber were extended and highly oriented in at least two different states; one arranged along the drawn axis and the other at 40° to the drawn axis. The micro-TA-derived melting points corresponded to these microstructural changes caused by the zone-drawing process and differed from the melting points obtained by differential scanning calorimetery. The micro-TA melting point of 140°C corresponded to the z-e-p melting point of the original fiber, being much lower than the conventional differential scanning calorimetery melting point of 163°C. As for the zone-drawn fiber, an increase of 19°C in the melting temperature revealed its high orientation level, and the appearance of three elevated melting peaks (161, 167, and 178°C) at the highest heating rate (1500°C/min) coincided with its several oriented states. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 1306–1311, 2006
Exploring O2 Diffusion in A-Type Cytochrome c Oxidases: Molecular Dynamics Simulations Uncover Two Alternative Channels towards the Binuclear Site

Cytochrome c oxidases (Ccoxs) are the terminal enzymes of the respiratory chain in mitochondria and most bacteria. These enzymes couple dioxygen (O2) reduction to the generation of a transmembrane electrochemical proton gradient. Despite decades of research and the availability of a large amount of structural and biochemical data available for the A-type Ccox family, little is known about the channel(s) used by O2 to travel from the solvent/membrane to the heme a3-CuB binuclear center (BNC). Moreover, the identification of all possible O2 channels as well as the atomic details of O2 diffusion is essential for the understanding of the working mechanisms of the A-type Ccox. In this work, we determined the O2 distribution within Ccox from Rhodobacter sphaeroides, in the fully reduced state, in order to identify and characterize all the putative O2 channels leading towards the BNC. For that, we use an integrated strategy combining atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations (with and without explicit O2 molecules) and implicit ligand sampling (ILS) calculations. Based on the 3D free energy map for O2 inside Ccox, three channels were identified, all starting in the membrane hydrophobic region and connecting the surface of the protein to the BNC. One of these channels corresponds to the pathway inferred from the X-ray data available, whereas the other two are alternative routes for O2 to reach the BNC. Both alternative O2 channels start in the membrane spanning region and terminate close to Y288I. These channels are a combination of multiple transiently interconnected hydrophobic cavities, whose opening and closure is regulated by the thermal fluctuations of the lining residues. Furthermore, our results show that, in this Ccox, the most likely (energetically preferred) routes for O2 to reach the BNC are the alternative channels, rather than the X-ray inferred pathway.
All-du-path coverage for parallel programs

One significant challenge in bringing the power of parallel machines to application programmers is providing them with a suite of software tools similar to the tools that sequential programmers currently utilize. In particular, automatic or semi-automatic testing tools for parallel programs are lacking. This paper describes our work in automatic generation of all-du-paths for testing parallel programs. Our goal is to demonstrate that, with some extension, sequential test data adequacy criteria are still applicable to parallel program testing. The concepts and algorithms in this paper have been incorporated as the foundation of our DELaware PArallel Software Testing Aid, della pasta.
Modal-interference-based temperature sensing using plastic optical fibers: markedly enhanced sensitivity near glass-transition temperature

We developed strain and temperature sensors based on multimode interference in perfluorinated graded-index (GI) plastic optical fibers, and investigate their sensing performance at 1300 nm. At room temperature, we achieve ultra-high sensitivities of strain and temperature of –112 pm/με and +49.8 nm/°C/m, the absolute value of which are approximately 7.2 and over 1800 times as large as those in silica GI multimode fibers, respectively. We also find that the temperature sensitivity is drastically enhanced with increasing temperature toward ~80 °C, where phase transition of core polymer partially occurs.