Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dislocation detection algorithm for atomistic simulations

We present a novel computational method that makes it possible to directly extract dislocation lines and their associated Burgers vectors from three-dimensional atomistic simulations. The on-the-fly dislocation detection algorithm is based on a fully automated Burgers circuit analysis, which locates dislocation cores and determines their Burgers vector. Through a subsequent vectorization step, the transition from the atomistic system to a discrete dislocation representation is achieved. Using a parallelized implementation of the algorithm, the dislocation analysis can be efficiently performed on the fly within a molecular dynamics simulation. This enables the visualization and investigation of dislocation processes occurring on sub-picosecond time scales, whose observation is otherwise impeded by the presence of other crystal defects or simply by the huge amount of data produced by large-scale atomistic simulations. The presented method is able to identify individual segments as well as networks of perfect, partial and twinning dislocations. The dislocation density can be directly determined and even more sophisticated information is made accessible by our dislocation analysis, including dislocation reactions and junctions, as well as stacking fault and twin boundary densities.
Transmission performance evaluation of uncoupled multicore fiber based on linewidth induced crosstalk statistical distribution

A model which can predict long-haul transmission performance of multicore fiber (MCF), with a tradeoff of accuracy and complexity, is highly desired. We analytically validate the Gaussian distribution of linewidth induced multicore fiber (MCF) crosstalk. Then, a modified Gaussian noise (GN) model including the MCF crosstalk is verified through simulations. It is found that transmission capacity using ring-structure MCF with mean crosstalk of −45 dB per 100 km can almost approach to that of N parallel single mode fibers (SMFs).
Locomotor Muscle Fatigue Does Not Alter Oxygen Uptake Kinetics during High-Intensity Exercise

The V˙O2 slow component (V˙O2sc) that develops during high-intensity aerobic exercise is thought to be strongly associated with locomotor muscle fatigue. We sought to experimentally test this hypothesis by pre-fatiguing the locomotor muscles used during subsequent high-intensity cycling exercise. Over two separate visits, eight healthy male participants were asked to either perform a non-metabolically stressful 100 intermittent drop-jumps protocol (pre-fatigue condition) or rest for 33 min (control condition) according to a random and counterbalanced order. Locomotor muscle fatigue was quantified with 6-s maximal sprints at a fixed pedaling cadence of 90 rev·min−1. Oxygen kinetics and other responses (heart rate, capillary blood lactate concentration and rating of perceived exertion, RPE) were measured during two subsequent bouts of 6 min cycling exercise at 50% of the delta between the lactate threshold and V˙O2max determined during a preliminary incremental exercise test. All tests were performed on the same cycle ergometer. Despite significant locomotor muscle fatigue (P = 0.03), the V˙O2sc was not significantly different between the pre-fatigue (464 ± 301 mL·min−1) and the control (556 ± 223 mL·min−1) condition (P = 0.50). Blood lactate response was not significantly different between conditions (P = 0.48) but RPE was significantly higher following the pre-fatiguing exercise protocol compared with the control condition (P < 0.01) suggesting higher muscle recruitment. These results demonstrate experimentally that locomotor muscle fatigue does not significantly alter the V˙O2 kinetic response to high intensity aerobic exercise, and challenge the hypothesis that the V˙O2sc is strongly associated with locomotor muscle fatigue.
Investigation of Charge Relaxation in Silicon Nitride for the Reliability of Electrostatically Driven Capacitive MEMS Devices

Dielectric charging/discharging in the real-life electrostatic microelectromechanical system device is proposed to be evaluated by the capacitance-voltage response for an analogous metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure. An analytical model based on this approach has been established. In the experiment, the relaxation behaviors of trapped charges in silicon nitride of MIS structure have been systematically investigated. For both positive and negative dc bias polarities, fast and slow discharge stages were clearly observed in the early and late charge relaxation processes, respectively. The discharge ratio (DR) was found to depend on both the bias polarity and magnitude. It was shown that negative dc bias would cause a high hole injection level but low DR, whereas positive dc bias would lead to a low electron injection level but high DR. Moreover, the DR will increase with the dc bias voltage. It was further found that the hole relaxation reaches the steady state faster than the electron relaxation. To explain the experimental results, we pointed out that the traps close to the interface play an important role in dielectric charging and discharging process.
The Effect of Carbon Black/Multiwall Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Fillers on the Properties of Natural Rubber Nanocomposites

The properties of hybrid multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) and carbon black (CB) in natural rubber nanocomposites were studied. The results show that the scorch and cure time decreased as the MWCNT loading increased in CB/MWCNT hybrid loading ratio but for the maximum torque, the result shown otherwise. As the MWCNT loading increased in CB/MWCNT hybrid loading ratio, the tensile strength, elongation at break and fatigue life are decrease, however the tensile modulus and rubber filler-interaction (Qf/Qg) value increased. The SEM results show a dispersion of CB and MWCNT in natural rubber matrix. Furthermore, the thermal stability for the hybrid nanocomposites is enhanced.
Multiagent Genetic Algorithm: An Online Probabilistic View on Economic Dispatch of Energy Hubs Constrained by Wind Availability

Multiple energy carriers (MECs) have been broadly engrossing power system planners and operators toward a modern standpoint in power system studies. Energy hub, though playing an undeniable role as the intermediate in implementing the MECs, still needs to be put under examination in both modeling and operating concerns. Since wind power continues to be one of the fastest-growing energy resources worldwide, its intrinsic challenges should be also treated as an element of crucial role in the vision of future energy networks. In response, this paper aims to concentrate on the online economic dispatch (ED) of MECs for which it provides a probabilistic ED optimization model. The presented model is treated via a robust optimization technique, i.e., multiagent genetic algorithm (MAGA), whose outstanding feature is to find well the global optima of the ED problem. ED once constrained by wind power availability, in the cases of wind power as one of the input energy carriers of the hub, faces an inevitable uncertainty that is also probabilistically overcome in the proposed model. Efficiently approached via MAGA, the presented scheme is applied to test systems equipped with energy hubs and as expected, introduces its applicability and robustness in the ED problems.
Age matters: bridging the generation gap through technology-mediated interaction

Internet-based, mobile and pervasive technologies provide the means for older people to establish and maintain intergenerational relationships over long distances. However the significance of this intergenerational context has been largely ignored when considering potential interactions and the design of new technologies. This workshop aims to explore what the important issues are when considering intergenerational contact as a significant context for design. The overarching objective of this workshop is to identify key research themes in respect of intergenerational communication and its implications for the design of interactive systems.
Investigation on Toughness of Fibre Cocktail Reinforced Self Consolidating Concrete after High Temperature

The effect of different fibres on the residual load-bearing capacity and the failure pattern of high-performance self consolidating concrete (HPSCC) after exposure to high temperature hass been studied in this work. The polypropylene fibers mitigate the spalling of HPSCC element clearly, but did not show clear effect on the mechanic properties of concrete. The macro steel fiber reinforced HPSCC showed higher flexural toughness and ultimate load before and after high temperatures. The mechanical properties of hybrid fibre reinforced HPSCC (HFHPSCC) after heating were better than that of mono-fibre reinforced HPSCC. The failure mode changed from pull-out of steel fibers at lower temperature to broken down of steel fibers at higher temperature. The use of hybrid fibre can be effective in providing the residual strength and failure pattern, and improving the toughness of HPSCC after high temperature.
Case‐parent Triads: Estimating Single‐ and Double‐dose Effects of Fetal and Maternal Disease Gene Haplotypes

Case‐parent triad data are considered a robust basis for studying association between variants of a gene and a disease. Methods evaluating statistical significance of association, like the TDT‐test and its extensions, are frequently used. When there are prior hypotheses of a causal effect of the gene under study, however, methods measuring penetrance of alleles or haplotypes as relative risks will be more informative. Log‐linear models have been proposed as a flexible tool for such relative risk estimation. We demonstrate an extension of the log‐linear model to a natural framework for also estimating effects of multiple alleles or haplotypes, incorporating both single‐ and double‐dose effects. The model also incorporates effects of single‐ and double‐dose maternal haplotypes on a fetus during pregnancy. Unknown phase of haplotypes as well as missing parents are accounted for by the EM algorithm. A number of numerical improvements to maximum likelihood estimation are also implemented to facilitate a larger number of haplotypes. Software for these analyses, HAPLIN, is publicly available through our web site. As an illustration we have re‐analyzed data on the MSX1 homeobox‐gene on chromosome 4 to show how haplotypes may influence the risk of oral clefts.
Balancing User Privacy Concerns in the Adoption of Location-Based Services: An Empirical Analysis across Pull-Based and Push-Based Applications

Location-Based Services (LBS) bring unprecedented mobility and personalization value to nomadic individuals and hence carry great commercial potential. However, the commercial potential of LBS is obscured by the user’s concerns for privacy whereby the LBS provider can misuse the confidential personal information of users and in extreme circumstances place an individual in danger or seriously jeopardize his or her social life or finances. Therefore, we study the adoption of LBS through a privacy calculus lens. Privacy calculus argues that individuals, when requested to provide personal information to corporations, perform a cost-benefit analysis to assess the outcomes they would face in return for the information, and respond accordingly. We study both pull-based and push-based LBS to have a comprehensive view of LBS adoption. The results of the study reveal that individual’s privacy concerns influence their intention to adopt directly in case of push-based LBS and indirectly in case of pull-based services. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Detection of viral ribonucleic acid and histologic analysis of inflamed synovium in Ross River virus infection.

OBJECTIVE To document the histology of Ross River virus (RRV) arthritis and to examine inflamed synovium for viral RNA. METHODS Biopsy tissue from the inflamed knees of 12 patients with RRV infection was studied using conventional and immunostaining techniques. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction technology was used to probe for the presence of viral RNA in the synovial biopsy samples and in serum. RESULTS Hyperplasia of the synovial lining layer, vascular proliferation, and mononuclear cell infiltration were the main histologic changes. RRV RNA was found in knee biopsy tissue that was obtained from 2 patients at 5 weeks after the onset of symptoms. CONCLUSION RRV RNA was identified in inflamed synovium more than a month after symptoms began. Inflammation was apparent in the absence of detectable virus in the majority of patients.
Optimizing non-native speech recognition for CALL applications

We are developing a Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) system that gives feedback to grammar and pronunciation that makes use of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). However, good quality unconstrained non-native ASR is not yet feasible. Therefore, we use an approach in which we try to elicit constrained responses. The task in the current experiments is to select utterances from a list of responses. The results of our experiments show that significant improvements can be obtained by optimizing the language model and acoustic models. In this way we could reduce the utterance error rate from 29-26% to 10-8%.
Applicability of Aeration and Delayed Addition of Selenite to the Isolation of Salmonellae

The effect of aeration combined with the delayed addition of selenite on the lag period of several strains of salmonellae and other enterobacteria is reported. A procedure has been developed involving shaking of the sample in a basal medium for 4 hr at 37 C, adding selenite and cystine, and continuing shaking for 20 hr. Confirmation by selective plating, biochemical tests, and serology gave results comparable to the standard lactose pre-enrichment method with the saving of 24 hr and elimination of one set of media. Confirmation by fluorescent-antibody tests showed that fewer positive fluorescent stains were obtained from the aerated procedure than from the lactose pre-enrichment procedure. Precautions in the application of this procedure are discussed.
Regulated Array Grammars of Finite Index. Part I: Theoretical Investigations

We consider regulated (n-dimensional) context-free array grammars of nite index, i.e., with a limited number of active areas. This research is motivated by the observation that in several practical applications of array grammars only such a bounded number of active areas is observed. Combined with diierent methods known from regulated rewriting (e.g., matrix grammars, programmed grammars, grammars with prescribed teams), this natural restriction to a limited number of non-terminal symbols occurring in the arrays during a derivation gives rise to various diierent families of array languages (depending on the type of context-free array productions used in the regulated array grammars working with various types of the nite index restriction). Moreover , in the second part we shall present a characterization of some of these families deened by regulated context-free array grammars working with a nite index restriction via special k-head nite array automata, which can be used in the eld of character recognition.
The Design of the Fifth Answer Set Programming Competition

Answer Set Programming (ASP) is a well-established paradigm of declarative programming that has been developed in the field of logic programming and nonmonotonic reasoning. Advances in ASP solving technology are customarily assessed in competition events, as it happens for other closely-related problem-solving technologies like SAT/SMT, QBF, Planning and Scheduling. ASP Competitions are (usually) biennial events; however, the Fifth ASP Competition departs from tradition, in order to join the FLoC Olympic Games at the Vienna Summer of Logic 2014, which is expected to be the largest event in the history of logic. This edition of the ASP Competition series is jointly organized by the University of Calabria (Italy), the Aalto University (Finland), and the University of Genova (Italy), and is affiliated with the 30th International Conference on Logic Programming (ICLP 2014). It features a completely re-designed setup, with novelties involving the design of tracks, the scoring schema, and the adherence to a fixed modeling language in order to push the adoption of the ASP-Core-2 standard. Benchmark domains are taken from past editions, and best system packages submitted in 2013 are compared with new versions and solvers. To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP).
Automated Detection of Noninvasive Imaging of Basal Cell Carcinoma by Convolutional Neural Network

Diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), the most common skin cancer, is made by histologic examination traditionally. Yet the process is invasive and timeconsuming. In vivo imaging modalities such as harmonic generation microscopy (HGM) was therefore developed for noninvasive diagnosis of BCC. However the images acquired by HGM are too many for physicians to interpret manually. Thus, in this paper we focus on detecting features of BCC automatically by customizing compact and efficient convolutional neural network (CNN) models on HGM images of BCC. Our best model achieves a better result than AlexNet [1], while using less than its 1% number of parameters. The study indicated the potential solution of using customized CNN to detect the features in similar imaging modalities.
Infertility in men: recent advances and continuing controversies.

Between 1 in 6 and 1 in 10 couples seek medical help for the problem of subfertility. It is important to recognize that, while in 20–25% of cases the problem was due to the male partner and in 30–40% the problem was predominantly female, in approximately 30% of cases, abnormalities were found in both partners, and in 15% no specific factor could be identified (1). It is also important, when dealing with infertile couples, to recognize that the duration of infertility is a critical prognostic factor, and in couples with a history of primary infertility of longer than 3 yr, the possibility of achieving an unassisted pregnancy is low.
Identification of IRAK1 as a risk gene with critical role in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus

A combined forward and reverse genetic approach was undertaken to test the candidacy of IRAK1 (interleukin-1 receptor associated kinase-1) as an X chromosome-encoded risk factor for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In studying ≈5,000 subjects and healthy controls, 5 SNPs spanning the IRAK1 gene showed disease association (P values reaching 10−10, odds ratio >1.5) in both adult- and childhood-onset SLE, in 4 different ethnic groups, with a 4 SNP haplotype (GGGG) being strongly associated with the disease. The functional role of IRAK1 was next examined by using congenic mouse models bearing the disease loci: Sle1 or Sle3. IRAK1 deficiency abrogated all lupus-associated phenotypes, including IgM and IgG autoantibodies, lymphocytic activation, and renal disease in both models. In addition, the absence of IRAK1 reversed the dendritic cell “hyperactivity” associated with Sle3. Collectively, the forward genetic studies in human SLE and the mechanistic studies in mouse models establish IRAK1 as a disease gene in lupus, capable of modulating at least 2 key checkpoints in disease development. This demonstration of an X chromosome gene as a disease susceptibility factor in human SLE raises the possibility that the gender difference in SLE may in part be attributed to sex chromosome genes.
Crystallography of Natural and Synthetic Gold Alloy Microstructures

To improve our understanding of the mechanisms of gold deposition, a comparison was made of the microstructures of a natural gold sample with a synthetic gold foil of similar alloy composition (approximately Au 90%, Ag 10%). The aim was to identify any similarities between the samples that could help increase our knowledge of how the natural gold microstructures formed and were modified post-mineralisation. The samples were analysed using electron backscatter diffraction to map their microstructure, with the synthetic gold foil then heated to and mapped at 400°C, 500°C, 600°C and 700°C. Both the natural and synthetic sample exhibited a dominance of ∑3 twin boundaries, but these were much less abundant in the synthetic sample prior to heating. The natural sample is dominated by coarse grains exhibiting lattice distortion and low angle grain boundaries, which more closely resemble the synthetic gold foil microstructure after recrystallisation has taken place, than the initial microstructure, implying that the grains have had time to grow. Performing experiments such as these allows direct comparison of gold microstructures where the formation conditions are known and the controlling mechanisms can be determined. This will improve our understanding of the important mechanisms behind gold deposition.
Targeting cancer stem cells and non-stem cancer cells: the potential of lipid-based nanoparticles.

Background Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been described as a relevant contributor to tumorigenicity, metastasis, tumor recurrence and drug resistance, making this cell population a relevant target in solid tumors. METHODS This has stimulated the development of different therapeutic strategies often targeting surface markers (CD44, epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM), aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) and nucleolin) and/or signaling pathways that are aberrantly activated and contribute to CSCs proliferation and survival. RESULTS There are a variety of signaling pathways often involved in physiological processes of cell function that aberrantly regulate CSCs, including Notch, Hedgehog, Wnt, PI3K/Akt, JAK/STAT and Ras/ERK signaling pathways. The inhibition of these pathways usually depletes CSC population and increases tumor sensitivity to chemotherapy. However, the recognition of the potential of cells to interconvert in response to environmental stimulus, turned both CSCs and non-stem cancer cells into two relevant therapeutic targets. Therefore, the use of drug combinations is increasingly needed. These drugs with different mechanisms of action often characterized by distinct pharmacokinetics profiles and, as such, will present distinct biodistribution patterns, following systemic administration. To synchronize pharmacokinetics, one can encapsulate synergistic drug combinations into lipid-based nanoparticles, assuring tumor delivery of the selected drug ratio. CONCLUSION This review will focus on the multiple strategies to target CSCs, as well as on the potential of lipid-based nanoparticles to target both CSCs and non-stem cancer cells.