Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interdiffusion analysis based on novel ultrasonic welding method with inserting interposed sheet

The molecular movement process has been developed according to previous study on the novel ultrasonic welding method of inserting interposed sheet and its apparatus. Based on the classical reptation theory, a hauling theory of interdiffusion has been proposed which can accelerate molecular movement and interpenetration surprisingly. Hauling effect can promote the interdiffusion but has no effect on the interpenetration length. We involve a coefficient ku to modify the relationship between the reptation time before and diffusion time, which can be related to the relative displacement and friction coefficient among the molecular in terms of the equations. The surface roughness, welding time, and welding force have been experimented and resulted uniformly in which the diffusion has been accelerated from our experiments. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2011. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers
Implicit value judgments in the measurement of health inequalities.

CONTEXT Quantitative estimates of the magnitude, direction, and rate of change of health inequalities play a crucial role in creating and assessing policies aimed at eliminating the disproportionate burden of disease in disadvantaged populations. It is generally assumed that the measurement of health inequalities is a value-neutral process, providing objective data that are then interpreted using normative judgments about whether a particular distribution of health is just, fair, or socially acceptable. METHODS We discuss five examples in which normative judgments play a role in the measurement process itself, through either the selection of one measurement strategy to the exclusion of others or the selection of the type, significance, or weight assigned to the variables being measured. FINDINGS Overall, we find that many commonly used measures of inequality are value laden and that the normative judgments implicit in these measures have important consequences for interpreting and responding to health inequalities. CONCLUSIONS Because values implicit in the generation of health inequality measures may lead to radically different interpretations of the same underlying data, we urge researchers to explicitly consider and transparently discuss the normative judgments underlying their measures. We also urge policymakers and other consumers of health inequalities data to pay close attention to the measures on which they base their assessments of current and future health policies.
A BLIND NAVIGATION SYSTEM USING RFID FOR INDOOR & OUTDOOR ENVIRONMENTS

In recent years, several approaches have been made to create systems that allow seamless tracking and navigation both in indoor and outdoor environments. This paper proposes a prototype which uses RFID technology to provide location-based services and navigation to the blind, or visually impaired. An overview of previous work made in the context of systems developed to assist the mobility of blind users. The reader reads the tag’s ID by RFID communication. It then sends this information through a Bluetooth channel to the PDA device. The ID string and data is processed and then an output is sent through another Bluetooth channel to the headsets which finally produce the audio output that is used by the visually impaired person.
Assessing Equivalence of Two Assays Using Sensitivity and Specificity

The equivalence of two assays is determined using the sensitivity and specificity relative to a gold standard. The equivalence-testing criterion is based on a misclassification rate proposed by Burdick et al. (2005) and the intersection-union test (IUT) method proposed by Berger (1982). Using a variance components model and IUT methods, we construct bounds for the sensitivity and specificity relative to the gold standard assay based on generalized confidence intervals. We conduct a simulation study to assess whether the bounds maintain the stated test size. We present a computational example to demonstrate the method described in the paper.
Multi-scale modelling of biological systems in process algebra with multi-way synchronisation

We present a stochastic process algebra designed for modelling biological systems at multiple scales, called process algebra with hooks (PAH). In PAH, processes represent different scales, e.g. biochemistry, cells or tissue. There are two synchronisation operators, distinguishing interactions within and between scales; composed actions represent events that occur at multiple scales. A stochastic semantics is provided, based on functional rates derived from kinetic laws. A parametric version of the algebra ensures that a model description is compact. An example illustrates how the algebra can be used to model and simulate multi-scale tissue growth, where growth and death of tissue depend on the local concentration of chemicals.
A 77 nW bioamplifier with a tunable bandwidth for neural recording systems

In this paper a low-power low-noise amplifier for neural recording and biomedical applications is presented. The frequency band of the amplifier is tunable. It has a gain of 28.3 dB. The low and the high cut-off frequency can be adjusted from 24 mHz to 30.6 Hz and 4.5 kHz to 7.47 kHz, respectively. The circuit is designed in 0. 18µm CMOS process, and it consumes only 77.8 nW at 1.8V supply voltage. The simulation results show a 14. 3µV input-referred noise corresponding to 1.32 efficiency factor (NEF). It is a great improvement compared with recent presented works in terms on power consumption and NEF which is vital in neural recording applications.
On generalized inverses of singular matrix pencils

On generalized inverses of singular matrix pencils Linear time-invariant networks are modelled by linear differential-algebraic equations with constant coefficients. These equations can be represented by a matrix pencil. Many publications on this subject are restricted to regular matrix pencils. In particular, the influence of the Weierstrass structure of a regular pencil on the poles of its inverse is well known. In this paper we investigate singular matrix pencils. The relations between the Kronecker structure of a singular matrix pencil and the multiplicity of poles at zero of the Moore-Penrose inverse and the Drazin inverse of the rational matrix are investigated. We present example networks whose circuit equations yield singular matrix pencils.
A left-lateralized network for reading Chinese words: a 3 T fMRI study

fMRI was used to investigate brain organization for reading in Chinese. Subjects were shown two-character Chinese words. A control task was used to eliminate the non-linguistic visual and motor confounds. Results show that naming of Chinese logographs is characterized by left-lateralized neuronal networks for the processing of orthographic, phonological, and semantic attributes. The orchestration of the middle frontal cortex, superior temporal cortex, superior parietal cortex, basal temporal area and extrastriate cortices of the left hemisphere may manifest the particularity of the central representation of simple word naming in Chinese.
Anatomy of the long tail: ordinary people with extraordinary tastes

The success of "infinite-inventory" retailers such as Amazon.com and Netflix has been ascribed to a "long tail" phenomenon. To wit, while the majority of their inventory is not in high demand, in aggregate these "worst sellers," unavailable at limited-inventory competitors, generate a significant fraction of total revenue. The long tail phenomenon, however, is in principle consistent with two fundamentally different theories. The first, and more popular hypothesis, is that a majority of consumers consistently follow the crowds and only a minority have any interest in niche content; the second hypothesis is that everyone is a bit eccentric, consuming both popular and specialty products. Based on examining extensive data on user preferences for movies, music, Web search, and Web browsing, we find overwhelming support for the latter theory. However, the observed eccentricity is much less than what is predicted by a fully random model whereby every consumer makes his product choices independently and proportional to product popularity; so consumers do indeed exhibit at least some a priori propensity toward either the popular or the exotic. Our findings thus suggest an additional factor in the success of infinite-inventory retailers, namely, that tail availability may boost head sales by offering consumers the convenience of "one-stop shopping" for both their mainstream and niche interests. This hypothesis is further supported by our theoretical analysis that presents a simple model in which shared inventory stores, such as Amazon Marketplace, gain a clear advantage by satisfying tail demand, helping to explain the emergence and increasing popularity of such retail arrangements. Hence, we believe that the return-on-investment (ROI) of niche products goes beyond direct revenue, extending to second-order gains associated with increased consumer satisfaction and repeat patronage. More generally, our findings call into question the conventional wisdom that specialty products only appeal to a minority of consumers.
Five-Ring Hollow-Core Photonic Bandgap Fiber with 1.8 dB/km Loss

A 19-cell hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber reaching 1.8±0.5 dB/km loss is reported. Despite expanded corner-holes in the first ring adjacent to the core, and only five cladding rings, the minimum loss is close to the previous record of 1.2 dB/km.
Shear viscosity from Gauss-Bonnet gravity with a dilaton coupling

We calculate the shear viscosity of field theories with gravity duals of Gauss-Bonnet gravity with a nontrivial dilaton using anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory. We find that the dilaton field has a nontrivial contribution to the ratio of shear viscosity over entropy density, and, after imposing a causal constraint for the boundary field theory, the new lower bound 4/25 pi, obtained from pure Gauss-Bonnet gravity, may have a small violation.
Techniques for trusted software engineering

How do we decide if it is safe to run a given piece of software on our machine? Software used to arrive in shrink-wrapped packages from known vendors. But increasingly, software of unknown provenance arrives over the internet as applets or agents. Running such software risks serious harm to the hosting machine. Risks include serious damage to the system and loss of private information. Decisions about hosting such software are preferably made with good knowledge of the software product itself, and of the software process used to build it. We use the term Trusted Software Engineering to describe tools and techniques for constructing safe software artifacts in a manner designed to inspire trust in potential hosts. Existing approaches have considered issues such as schedule, cost and efficiency; we argue that the traditionally software engineering issues of configuration management and intellectual property protection are also of vital concern. Existing approaches (e.g., Java) to this problem have used static type checking, run-time environments, formal proofs and/or cryptographic signatures; we propose the use of trusted hardware in combination with a key management infrastructure as an additional, complementary technique for trusted software engineering, which offers some attractive features.
Regulation of red cell life-span, erythropoiesis, senescence, and clearance

The number of red blood cells (RBCs) and their properties are optimized by nature for most efficient oxygen delivery from the lungs to hypoxic periphery. Changes in metabolic requirements or environmental oxygen availability quickly translate to modulation of the RBC number, blood rheology, oxygen affinity of hemoglobin, and even of vascular tone. Inability to match the changes in oxygen demand may be fatal and requires therapeutic intervention. The recent advances in the ongoing intensive investigations of the mechanisms in control of regulation of erythropoiesis, RBC maturation and aging, as well as the processes involved in recognition of senescent RBCs and their clearance make up the present volume. It all starts from within the mesoderm, the fetal liver and from the adult bone marrow where primitive or definitive erythropoiesis takes place (Palis, 2014). Facilitated RBC production may be induced promptly “on demand” in extended oxygen requirements upon ascent to the high altitude and quickly reversed when extra RBC mass is without benefit any more (Risso et al., 2014). Exercise and professional sport increase RBC turnover and maximize oxygen delivery to the tissues (Mairbaurl, 2013). Maturation and aging of RBCs is accompanied by multiple processes occurring at various rates driving the circulating RBCs from adolescence to senescence within approximately 120 days (Lew and Tiffert, 2013; Lutz and Bogdanova, 2013). The resulting “markers of senescence” are recognized by the macrophages and clearance of RBCs is promptly initiated (de Back et al., 2014). Premature clearance is a hallmark of various disorders associated with anemia. In each case one or multiple markers of senescence appear prematurely. Those include excessive oxidative stress (Mohanty et al., 2014), excessive cation leak with the following dehydration (Wang et al., 2014), decrease in RBC size and loss of RBC membrane through vesiculation (Alaarg et al., 2013), metabolic abnormalities (Vives-Corrons et al., 2013), or following auto-immune diseases (Lutz and Bogdanova, 2013). Blood storage damages RBCs facilitating aging. As a result clearance of transfused cells is dramatically facilitated (Bosman, 2013; Flatt et al., 2014). The present compilation does not only give an overview of the variety of opinions reflecting the current understanding of the mechanisms of erythropoiesis, aging, and clearance of RBCs. We hope that it also provides the base for future lively discussions of the up-standing problems in this rapidly developing research area.
Can We Teach Empathy ? Techniques Using Standardized Patients to Assist Learners with Empathy ( Submission # 1039 )

Introduction/Background: Empathy is an essential component of compassionate care and has been associated with fewer medical errors, better patient outcomes and more satisfied patients. It also Results in fewer malpractice suits, better relationships and happier providers. A growing number of medical & nursing schools, professional organizations and licensing boards are developing requirements that make empathy a core value for all providers.
A robust parameterization approach for impedance control

We present an actuator system and an advanced impedance control strategy, designed for the interaction with human limbs. Relying on the inherent stiffness, the connection between actuator and joint is considered to improve safety and guarantee performance. The control approach consists of a cascaded structure. In an outer loop, impedance control provides limb motion support with variable stiffness. The inner linear-quadratic regulator (LQR) pressure control allows for separate control over chamber pressures and mean pressure. A new method has been applied to prove stability for the three-dimensional range of impedance parameters with Kharitonov's stability criterion for robust positive polynomials. Furthermore robust stability for the perturbed control system has been shown with structured singular value μ. The impedance of the setup is studied in simulation as well as on a test bench. Effects of different mean pressures lead to results for energy efficiency and compressed air energy storage.
Bulk-Fill Resin-Based Composites

Composite resin is the material with the broadest application in restorative dentistry due to its optic and physic properties being very similar to the natural dental tissue, in order to re-establish dental function, form and aesthetic [1,2]. The material presents as its principal characteristic adhesion to the dental structure, avoiding further damage to the dental tissue, however, it presents as disadvantages a strong polymerization contraction stress, with risk of causing marginal gap and staining, microinfiltration, post-procedure sensibility, secondary caries and cusp fracture, characterising a bad prognostic [3-6]. With that in mind, the technology industry developed bulk-fill low-polymerization contraction resins, which permit the insertion of larger quantities of resins and a shorter photopolymerization time. There is an expressive growth on the number of studies regarding this issue in the last five years.
Attracting and retaining knowledge workers in knowledge cities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate ways to attract and retain knowledge workers in a globally successful knowledge city or a city aspiring to become one.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the literature on knowledge work and workers and provides useful recommendations on the fundamentals of how to attract and retain knowledge workers.Findings – The paper sheds light on attracting and retaining knowledge workers that knowledge industries, knowledge‐based development and knowledge cities rely on.Originality/value – The paper provides an in‐depth discussion on the concepts of knowledge work, knowledge workers and what these workers want when they are not at work.
RETIGABINE :B ENDING POTASSIUM CHANNELS TO OUR WILL The New Anticonvulsant Retigabine Favors Voltage-dependent Opening of the Kv7.2 (KCNQ2) Channel by Binding to Its Activation Gate

oltage-gated ion channels are important determinants ofneuronalactivity.Numerousion-channelmutationshavebeen linked to epilepsy, and many antiepileptic medicationsmodulate sodium or calcium channels. Potassium channels areprobably as important in regulating membrane potential, yetlittle has been done to develop therapeutic modulators of thisprotein. The article by Wuttke et al. explores the mechanismwhereby a novel antiepileptic medication, retigabine (RTG),enhances a subset of voltage-gated potassium channels.The canonical structure for voltage-gated ion channels is acombination of four cassettes, each made of six transmembrane(TM) domains. Whereas this structure is typical of sodium andcalciumchannels,whichhaveallfourcassettescontainedwithina single large protein, the arrangement is much more compli-cated for potassium channels. More than 80 human potassiumchannel–relatedgeneshavebeenidentiﬁed,manywithmultiplesplice variants and accessory proteins (1). This diversity allowsa wide range of channels, some of which are voltage sensitive,whereas others respond to many different stimuli, includingcalcium, G proteins, ATP, and changes in pH. Fortunately, themultitude of potassium channels all are based on a commonstructural motif, two TM domains (M1 and M2) and an inter-vening P loop. Voltage-gated K
A new approach to remote visualization of large volume data

We are in the era of petascale computing, and exascale computing is around the corner. The incredible processing power and capacity of today’s supercomputers enables scientists to answer some of the most difficult questions in sciences using large-scale, high fidelity simulations. To gain new insights into the simulations and foster new discoveries, scientists must be able to make sense of the full extent of the simulation output at the highest possible resolution. For this purpose, visualization has become an indispensible tool. However, today each run of a petascale simulation typically outputs several hundred terabytes of data to disk. Transferring data at this scale over wide-area networks to the scientist’s laboratory for post-processing visualization and analysis is not an option. Even if the data files can be moved to the scientists, existing desktop data analysis and visualization tools cannot effectively handle such large-scale data. A viable solution is not to move the raw data; instead, scientists will want to make use of the high-performance visualization facilities, high-speed networks, and parallel file systems at the supercomputing center to transform the data into compact images or geometric objects for fast delivery to the scientist’s desktop for viewing and manipulation. Such distance, remote visualization will become common practice in the near future, though adequate technologies from data transformation methods to remote visualization UI remain to be developed.
Reversing Category Exclusivities in Infant Perceptual Categorization: Simulations and Data

Three- to four-month-old infants presented with a series of cat or dog photographs show an unusual asymmetry in the exclusivity of the perceptual category representations formed. We have previously accounted for this asymmetry in terms of an inclusion asymmetry in the distribution of features present in the cat and dog images used during familiarization (Mareschal, French, & Quinn, 2000). We use a combination of connectionist modeling and experimental testing of infants to show that the asymmetry can be reversed by an appropriate pre-selection and minor image modification of cat and dog exemplars used for familiarization. The reversal of the asymmetry adds weight to the feature distribution explanation put forward by Mareschal et al. (2000).
Improved homogeneity and surface coverage of graphene oxide layers fabricated by horizontal-dip-coating for solution-processable organic semiconducting devices

We herein report an investigation of graphene oxide (GO) thin layers fabricated by simple horizontal-dip (H-dip) coating on an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) anode as used in solution-processable organic semiconducting devices. Homogeneous and smooth GO thin films were successfully deposited via an aqueous dispersion of GO on an ITO electrode, with a high surface coverage and low surface roughness, and a thickness controlled by H-dip coating. The use of an H-dip-coated GO film as a hole-injecting interfacial layer (IFL) in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) resulted in a remarkable improvement in device performance (17 cd A−1), better than that (12 cd A−1) of a reference OLED with a spin-coated GO IFL. Stacked bi-IFLs of GO/poly(ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (GO/PEDOT:PSS) fabricated by H-dip coating were also investigated as hole-injecting IFLs in OLEDs, and these showed an even better device performance (23 cd A−1). Furthermore, it was also shown that polymer solar cells with H-dip-coated GO/PEDOT:PSS hole-collecting bi-IFLs exhibited a remarkable improvement in power conversion efficiency (6.9%), which was also higher than that (4.8%) obtained with spin-coated bi-IFLs. These results clearly indicate that the H-dip-coating of GO(/PEDOT:PSS) can effectively modify the ITO interface to yield efficient hole-selective IFLs, representing considerable promise for use as an alternative to spin-coated IFLs in the mass production of solution-processable organic semiconducting devices.
Phishing with Consumer Electronics - Malicious Home Routers

This short paper describes an attack that exploits the online marketplace’s susceptibility to covert fraud, opaqueness of embedded software, and social engineering to hijack account access and ultimately steal money. The attacker introduces a fatal security flaw into a trusted embedded system (e.g. computer motherboard, network interface card, network router, cell phone), distributes it through the online marketplace at a plausible bargain, and then exploits the security flaw to steal information. Unlike conventional fraud, consumer risk far exceeds the price of the good. As proof of concept, the firmware on a wireless home router is replaced by an open source embedded operating system. Once installed, its DNS server is reconfigured to selectively spoof domain resolution. This instance of malicious embedded software is discussed in depth, including implementation details, attack extensions, and countermeasures.