Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of Carbon Fibers (CF’s) and Multi Walled Carbon NanoTubes (MWCNT’s) on the mechanical and microstructural properties of polymer based matrix for aviation applications

This research investigates the reinforcement effects obtained by inducing Carbon Fibers (CF’s) and Multi Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT’s) at micro and nano level in a polymer based matrix. Percentage composition of the fillers were varied in three different proportions that is 0.15, 0.5, 0.75% by weight of polymer matrix, these compositions were varied in order to check the best efficacy of reinforcement proportion for optimum results. Homogeneous and uniform distribution of nanoparticles in the holding matrix was achieved with the help of Ultrasonicator. The specimens casted as per ASTM standards were tested for mechanical properties like Load deflection criteria, tensile strength. The test results of reinforced specimens were compared with a controlled specimen, to determine the changes obtained because of the reinforcement phase. Spectroscopic analysis was performed using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) to identify the nanofillers interaction with the holding matrix such as dispersion, tailoring of different layers of polymers etc. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was conducted as an elemental analysis to know the chemical composition of the specimens and their effects. Specimen containing CF’s and MWCNTs with 0.15% composition showed optimum results in terms of Ultimate load carrying capacity and tensile strength as compared to a plain epoxy. Keyword-Carbon fibers, Multi walled carbon nanotubes, Energy Dispersive X ray Spectroscopy, Mechanical properties, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy.
Modulation of erythroid adhesion receptor expression by hydroxyurea in children with sickle cell disease

Hydroxyurea is currently employed for prevention of vaso-occlusive events in patients with sickle cell disease, but its mechanism of action is largely unknown. Findings of this study suggest that hydroxyurea acts during erythroid development by modulating adhesion receptor expression. See related perspective article on page 481. Background We investigated adhesion receptor levels on red blood cells, reticulocytes and erythroid progenitors from children with sickle cell disease treated or not with hydroxyurea. Design and Methods Four groups of patients were investigated: (i) children receiving hydroxyurea for severe vaso-occlusive events (n=26); (ii) untreated children with a history of vaso-occlusive events (n=20); (iii) children with no history of vaso-occlusive events (n=28); and (iv) healthy African controls (n=27). Expression of adhesion receptors was analyzed by flow cytometry with specific mono-clonal antibodies. Results Reticulocytes and/or red blood cells from the children with sickle cell disease showed significantly higher expression of CD36, α 4β 1, Lu/BCAM than those from controls, whatever the severity of the disease, as well as less marked increases in expression of ICAM-4, CD47 and CD147. Under hydroxyurea treatment, the expression of CD36, α 4β 1 and ICAM-4 (to a lesser extent) was decreased, but surprisingly the expression of Lu/BCAM (and also CD47 and CD147 to a lesser extent) was significantly increased. Alterations of levels of adhesion receptors could be recapitulated in two-phase liquid cultures of erythroid progenitors from controls and untreated children with a history of vaso-occlusive disease, grown in the absence or presence of hydroxyurea. Conclusions Our results suggest that hydroxyurea acts during erythroid development and modulates adhesion receptor expression and function differently, possibly by acting on gene expression and the signaling cascade leading to receptor activation.
Changes in Nitrogen-Fixing and Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacterial Communities in Soil of a Mixed Conifer Forest after Wildfire

ABSTRACT This study was undertaken to examine the effects of forest fire on two important groups of N-cycling bacteria in soil, the nitrogen-fixing and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria. Sequence and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of nifH and amoA PCR amplicons was performed on DNA samples from unburned, moderately burned, and severely burned soils of a mixed conifer forest. PCR results indicated that the soil biomass and proportion of nitrogen-fixing and ammonia-oxidizing species was less in soil from the fire-impacted sites than from the unburned sites. The number of dominant nifH sequence types was greater in fire-impacted soils, and nifH sequences that were most closely related to those from the spore-forming taxa Clostridium and Paenibacillus were more abundant in the burned soils. In T-RFLP patterns of the ammonia-oxidizing community, terminal restriction fragments (TRFs) representing amoA cluster 1, 2, or 4 Nitrosospira spp. were dominant (80 to 90%) in unburned soils, while TRFs representing amoA cluster 3A Nitrosospira spp. dominated (65 to 95%) in fire-impacted soils. The dominance of amoA cluster 3A Nitrosospira spp. sequence types was positively correlated with soil pH (5.6 to 7.5) and NH3-N levels (0.002 to 0.976 ppm), both of which were higher in burned soils. The decreased microbial biomass and shift in nitrogen-fixing and ammonia-oxidizing communities were still evident in fire-impacted soils collected 14 months after the fire.
Towards high electron mobility in Gan(0001) based InGaN and AlGaN heterostructures

In this work, the MBE growth of GaN/InGaN and GaN/AlGaN heterostructures was optimized with respect to high electron mobilities in two dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) at low temperatures. For InGaN based heterostructures, mobilities as high as μ=560 cm2V−1s−1 at 4K were obtained which is the highest reported value for MBE grown material today. State of the art results were achieved for GaN/AlGaN structures with a reproducible mobility around μ =20000 cm2V−1s−1 at 2K. For each material system, the optimization process was studied in detail using in-situ RHEED. A number of key aspects of growth that significantly affect the electron transport were identified. The dominating scattering processes in InGaN and AlGaN based 2DEGs were determined by magnetoresistance measurements together with structural characterization.
Sepsis and hyperoxia effects on the pulmonary surfactant system in wild-type and iNOS knockout mice

Alterations of pulmonary surfactant and increases in inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) have been implicated in the pathophysiology of acute lung injury. It was hypothesised that these two observations are related and that alterations of the endogenous surfactant, due to either sepsis or hyperoxia, would be reduced in mice lacking the iNOS gene compared to wild-type mice. Wild-type and iNOS (−/−) mice were randomised into sham or sepsis, and in a separate experiment animals were randomised to normoxia or hyperoxia exposure for 48 h. Lungs were lavaged and analysed for total surfactant levels and surfactant subfractions (large (LA) and small (SA) aggregates). Both sepsis groups had decreased SA compared to sham groups with no significant difference between the two genotypes. Mice exposed to hyperoxia had a decreased amount of total surfactant when compared to normoxia controls and there was no significant difference between the two genotypes. It is concluded that inducible nitric oxide synthase does not influence the amount of pulmonary surfactant or surfactant subfractions recovered in lavage after 18 h of sepsis or 48 h of hyperoxia.
Evaluation Of Low Sulfur Marine Fuel Availability – Pacific Rim

The shipping industry is facing many challenges to meet proposed and adopted regulations dealing with low sulfur marine fuels worldwide. Vessel owners are considering new and alternative strategies such as entering into low-sulfur fuel contracts now to meet future low sulfur fuel regulations and implementing trials to see how switching to low sulfur fuels will impact their engines and fuel operations. Some vessel manufacturers are incorporating requests by clients to add extra low sulfur tanks to new vessels, while marine engine manufacturers are recommending procedures for switching from higher sulfur fuel to lower sulfur fuel while engines are running. This is known as dual-fuel switching in coastal waters, as opposed to reconfiguring a ship to run on distillate instead of residual fuel all the time. Shipping lines were interviewed with regard to fuel use (Section 5.1), equipment issues associated with low sulfur fuels (Section 5.2), and operational issues (Section 5.3).
Minimizing leakage power in aging-bounded high-level synthesis with design time multi-Vth assignment

Aging effects (such as Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI)) can cause the temporal degradation of threshold voltage of transistors, and have become major reliability concerns for deep-submicron (DSM) designs. Meanwhile, leakage power dissipation becomes dominant in total power as technology scales. While multi-threshold voltage assignment has been shown as an effective way to reduce leakage, the NBTI-degradation rates vary with different initial threshold voltage assignment, and therefore motivates the co-optimizations of leakage reduction and NBTI mitigation. This paper minimizes leakage power during high-level synthesis of circuits with bounded delay degradation (thus guaranteed lifetime), using multi-Vth resource libraries. We first propose a fast evaluation approach for NBTI-induced degradation of architectural function units, and multi-Vth resource libraries are built with degradation characterized for each function unit. We then propose an aging-bounded high-level synthesis framework, within which the degraded delays are used to guide the synthesis, and leakage power is optimized through the proposed aging-aware resource rebinding algorithm. Experimental results show that, the proposed techniques can effectively reduce the leakage power with an extra 26% leakage reduction, compared to traditional aging-unaware multi-Vth assignment approach.
The Magnetorotational Instability in a Collisionless Plasma

We consider the linear axisymmetric stability of a differentially rotating collisionless plasma in the presence of a weak magnetic field; we restrict our analysis to wavelengths much larger than the proton Larmor radius. This is the kinetic version of the magnetorotational instability explored extensively as a mechanism for magnetic field amplification and angular momentum transport in accretion disks. The kinetic calculation is appropriate for hot accretion flows onto compact objects and for the growth of very weak magnetic fields, where the collisional mean free path is larger than the wavelength of the unstable modes. We show that the kinetic instability criterion is the same as in MHD, namely that the angular velocity decrease outward. However, nearly every mode has a linear kinetic growth rate that differs from its MHD counterpart. The kinetic growth rates also depend explicitly on β, i.e., on the ratio of the gas pressure to the pressure of the seed magnetic field. For β ~ 1 the kinetic growth rates are similar to the MHD growth rates, while for β ≫ 1 they differ significantly. For β ≫ 1, the fastest growing mode has a growth rate ≈ Ω for a Keplerian disk, larger than its MHD counterpart; there are also many modes whose growth rates are negligible, ≲ β-1/2Ω ≪ Ω. We provide a detailed physical interpretation of these results and show that gas pressure forces, rather than just magnetic forces, are central to the behavior of the magnetorotational instability in a collisionless plasma. We also discuss the astrophysical implications of our analysis.
Early experiences with node-level power capping on the Cray XC40 platform

Power consumption of extreme-scale supercomputers has become a key performance bottleneck. Yet current practices do not leverage power management opportunities, instead running at "maximum power". This is not sustainable. Future systems will need to manage power as a critical resource, directing it to where it has greatest benefit. Power capping is one mechanism for managing power budgets, however its behavior is not well understood. This paper presents an empirical evaluation of several key HPC workloads running under a power cap on a Cray XC40 system, and provides a comparison of this technique with p-state control, demonstrating the performance differences of each. These results show: 1. ) Maximum performance requires ensuring the cap is not reached; 2. ) Performance slowdown under a cap can be attributed to cascading delays which result in unsynchronized performance variability across nodes; and, 3. ) Due to lag in reaction time, considerable time is spent operating above the set cap. This work provides a timely and much needed comparison of HPC application performance under a power cap and attempts to enable users and system administrators to understand how to best optimize application performance on power-constrained HPC systems.
Password-based single-file encryption and secure data deletion for solid-state drive

Recently, SSD sales are on the steady rise. The reason of sales is that SSD is faster and smaller than HDD. Therefore SSD serves as a typical alternative to HDD. In fact, SSD considerably emulates the technology of HDD such as the communication protocol and hardware interfaces. So, the technology of HDD can quickly be adapted to SSD. However, SSD slightly differ from HDD in the way of storing, managing and accessing the data. Because of the difference between SSD and HDD, it is possible that technology and command of HDD are not accurately operated on SSD. So various problems on the technology of SSD have occurred gradually including encryption and deletion. To solve this problem, we have to analyze the method of data encryption and secure data deletion suitable for SSD. In this paper, we research significant technology and security problem relevant to SSD. On the basis of analysis about SSD problems, we propose the password-based single-file encryption and secure data deletion for SSD and compare the previous researches with proposed method.
The relationship between IT adoption, IS success and project success

This paper reviews IS project success related studies of the 1992-2016 period. The relevant academic journal and conferences during the time were scanned. The findings show that while conceptual and empirical articles are dominant, the three theoretical topics, namely IT adoption, IS success and project success are highlighted. Interestingly, although the three streams of research are distinct to each other, they indicate some jointly conceptual constructs. Implications for IS research are also discussed.
Riemannian Geometries on Spaces of Plane Curves

We study some Riemannian metrics on the space of regular smooth curves in the plane, viewed as the orbit space of maps from the circle to the plane modulo the group of diffeomorphisms of the circle, acting as reparameterizations. In particular we investigate the L^2 inner product with respect to 1 plus curvature squared times arclength as the measure along a curve, applied to normal vector field to the curve. The curvature squared term acts as a sort of geometric Tikhonov regularization because, without it, the geodesic distance between any 2 distinct curves is 0, while in our case the distance is always positive. We give some lower bounds for the distance function, derive the geodesic equation and the sectional curvature, solve the geodesic equation with simple endpoints numerically, and pose some open questions. The space has an interesting split personality: among large smooth curves, all its sectional curvatures are positive or 0, while for curves with high curvature or perturbations of high frequency, the curvatures are negative.
Effects of lidocaine into knee on QF strength and EMG in patients with ACL lesion.

PURPOSE In our previous study, we found that injection of lidocaine into intact knees reduced the maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) and integrated electromyogram (I-EMG) of the quadriceps femoris (QF). This study was designed to investigate changes in the MVC and I-EMG of the QF in response to lidocaine, in patients with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) lesion, to evaluate alpha-motoneuron activity innervating the QF. METHODS The MVC of knee extension and I-EMG of the vastus medialis (VM), vastus lateralis (VL), and rectus femoris (RF) muscles were measured in eight patients with ruptured ACL, before and after lidocaine injection into the knee. RESULTS There were no significant differences between preinjection and postinjection values of MVC (preinjection: 167 +/- 49 N.m; postinjection: 164 +/- 55 N.m) and I-EMG (preinjection: VL: 0.11 +/- 0.06, VM: 0.13 +/- 0.10, RF: 0.09 +/- 0.04) (postinjection: VL: 0.12 +/- 0.07, VM: 0.13 +/- 0.10, RF: 0.09 +/- 0.05). CONCLUSION Our results indicated that hindrance of afferent feedback from the knee in patients with ACL rupture did not significantly change alpha-motoneuron activity. Lidocaine injection into the knee joint of the subjects in this study only attenuated afferent feedback from mechanoreceptors in the knee joint cavity, but not in the ACL, as afferent feedback from ACL was already lost due to ACL rupture. This indicated that attenuation of afferent feedback from mechanoreceptors in the knee joint cavity other than the ACL did not significantly decrease the activity of alpha-motoneurons innervating the QF during MVC exertion. Therefore, our findings provide evidence that afferent feedback from the ACL has a major influence on the MVC exertion of the QF.
Lipooligosaccharide-Deficient Neisseria meningitidis Shows Altered Pilus-Associated Characteristics

ABSTRACT Molecular interaction between host mucosal surfaces and outer membrane components of microbes is crucial in the infection process. The outer membrane of pathogenic Neisseria contains surface molecules such as pili, PilC, and Opa and a monolayer of lipooligosaccharide (LOS), all of which are involved in the interaction with host cells. Pili mediate the initial attachment to human epithelial cells, which is followed by tight contact between bacteria and the eucaryotic cells, leading to bacterial invasion. To further examine the basis for bacterium-host cell contact, we constructed an LOS-deficient Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C mutant. LOS deficiency was without exception accompanied by altered colony opacity and morphology, which most likely represented an “on” switch for Opa540 expression, and by reduced levels of the iron-regulated proteins FetA and FbpA. We show here that LOS is essential for pilus-associated adherence but dispensable for fiber formation and twitching motility. The absence of attachment to epithelial cells could not be attributed to altered levels of piliation or defects in the pilus adhesion phenotype. Further, LOS mutants do not invade host cells and have lost the natural competence for genetic transformation.
Improvements in the cervical angle and anthropometric distances using elasticum suspension

Aim: This study aims to characterize the effects of elastic facelifts using the elasticum suspension technique on the cervical angle and anthropometric distances. Methods: Forty-six patients underwent surgery. Two 4-5 mm incisions a few centimetres apart were made at sideburn. Through blunt dissection, the deep temporal fascia was approached. An elastic thread (Elasticum®) was anchored to this fascia. A 1.0 cm incision was made just in front of the earlobe. The elastic thread was anchored to the tympanoparotid fascia. Jano needle was passed under the skin surface, as determined by the depth mark of the needle along the cervicomandibular angle, and the elastic threads were looped around the contralateral tympanoparotid fascia. Standard lateral photographs were taken and evaluated. Results: The elasticum suspension significantly decreased the cervical angle (P < 0.001, -5.5 ± 9.8%). This procedure significantly decreased the distance from the gonion-gnathion to the labiale inferioris (Gn-Li) (P < 0.001, -18.4 ± 25.5%). The ratio of the distance from Gn to the cervical point (Gn-C) to Gn-Li increased significantly (P < 0.001, 62.8 ± 85.8%) and the ratio of the distance from C to the visible thyroid cartilage (C-T) to Gn-C decreased significantly (P = 0.007, -7.1 ± 45.2%). Conclusion: Elasticum suspension may be a satisfactory minimally invasive method for facelifts, brow lifts, and neck lifts.
Dosage-Sensitive Function of RETINOBLASTOMA RELATED and Convergent Epigenetic Control Are Required during the Arabidopsis Life Cycle

The plant life cycle alternates between two distinct multi-cellular generations, the reduced gametophytes and the dominant sporophyte. Little is known about how generation-specific cell fate, differentiation, and development are controlled by the core regulators of the cell cycle. In Arabidopsis, RETINOBLASTOMA RELATED (RBR), an evolutionarily ancient cell cycle regulator, controls cell proliferation, differentiation, and regulation of a subset of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) genes and METHYLTRANSFERASE 1 (MET1) in the male and female gametophytes, as well as cell fate establishment in the male gametophyte. Here we demonstrate that RBR is also essential for cell fate determination in the female gametophyte, as revealed by loss of cell-specific marker expression in all the gametophytic cells that lack RBR. Maintenance of genome integrity also requires RBR, because diploid plants heterozygous for rbr (rbr/RBR) produce an abnormal portion of triploid offspring, likely due to gametic genome duplication. While the sporophyte of the diploid mutant plants phenocopied wild type due to the haplosufficiency of RBR, genetic analysis of tetraploid plants triplex for rbr (rbr/rbr/rbr/RBR) revealed that RBR has a dosage-dependent pleiotropic effect on sporophytic development, trichome differentiation, and regulation of PRC2 subunit genes CURLY LEAF (CLF) and VERNALIZATION 2 (VRN2), and MET1 in leaves. There were, however, no obvious cell cycle and cell proliferation defects in these plant tissues, suggesting that a single functional RBR copy in tetraploids is capable of maintaining normal cell division but is not sufficient for distinct differentiation and developmental processes. Conversely, in leaves of mutants in sporophytic PRC2 subunits, trichome differentiation was also affected and expression of RBR and MET1 was reduced, providing evidence for a RBR-PRC2-MET1 regulatory feedback loop involved in sporophyte development. Together, dosage-sensitive RBR function and its genetic interaction with PRC2 genes and MET1 must have been recruited during plant evolution to control distinct generation-specific cell fate, differentiation, and development.
Multimodality MR Imaging Findings of Low-Grade Brain Edema in Hepatic Encephalopathy

SUMMARY: HE is a neuropsychiatric syndrome that develops in patients with severe liver diseases, with portosystemic shunt surgery in the form of diffuse mild brain edema. It is also associated with functional changes, such as those in attention and the DMN. MR imaging offers a range of capabilities for assessing the low-grade brain edema and its functional changes in brain affected by HE; therefore, it provides the opportunity to uncover the pathophysiologic mechanisms of HE. This article will review our current understanding of the pathophysiology of low-grade brain edema and will outline the role of structural MR imaging, MTR, DWI, DTI, and MR spectroscopy in the detection of low-grade brain edema, and the role of BOLD fMRI in the exploration of the related functional changes. A perspective of the study in this area will also be provided.