Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of interphase conditions on the tensile and fatigue properties of short-fiber reinforced rubber

The effects of the amount of nylon-66 short-fiber and its bonding to a chloroprene rubber were studied. The following results were obtained: (a) The tensile strength of short-fiber reinforced rubber (SFRR) exhibits a dilution effect in each interphase. It was found that the interphase conditions have an important effect on the dilution ratio and the critical fiber content. The specimen with double coatings of the bonding agent and a rubber solution, becomes the best of 5 interphase models. Both the yield strength and tensile moduli significantly improve with fiber content. (b) The spring constant (SC) of unreinforced rubber decreases after the fatigue test, however, the SC of all reinforced rubbers increases. The change in SC of reinforced rubber decreases with fiber content. The better the interphase condition, the smaller the change of the SC. (c) The temperature of rubber increases about 2.6 fold after the fatigue test. The reinforced rubbers show a 1.4 to 2.2 fold increase in temperature. The temperature changes during the fatigue test of the reinforced rubbers decrease with increasing fiber content, as well as with improved interphase bonding.
The customised electronic nebuliser: a new category of liquid aerosol drug delivery systems

Inhalation of aerosols is the preferred route of administration of pharmaceutical compounds to the lungs when treating various respiratory diseases. Inhaled antibiotics, hormones, peptides and proteins are potential candidates for direct targeting to the site of action, thus minimising systemic absorption, dilution and undesired side effects, as much lower doses (as low as a fiftieth) are sufficient to achieve a similar therapeutic effect, compared with oral administration. A quick relief from the symptoms and a good tolerance are the main advantages of aerosol therapy. A new class of electronic delivery device is now starting to enter the market. The eFlow® electronic nebuliser (PARI GmbH, Germany) provides improved portability and, in some instances, cuts treatment time to only a fraction of what has been experienced with current nebulised therapy. Drug formulations and the device can be mutually adapted and matched for optimal characteristics to meet the desired therapeutic target. Reformulation of known and proven compounds in a liquid format are commercially attractive as they present a relatively low development risk for potential drug candidates and, thus, have become a preferred pathway for the development of new inhalation products.
Reengineering IT Infrastructures: A Method for Topology Discovery

ICT systems are made of software, middleware and hardware components and are usually distributed over a network. Middleware and hardware components are combined on what is usually designated an "IT Infrastructure (ITI)". It is upon that ITI that application software is run. The topology of that ITI poses constraints on software algorithms, data structures and software configuration, due to concerns such as fault tolerance, latency or synchronization. In large ITIs that topology evolves constantly. Therefore, when faced to the challenge of maintaining a legacy ICT system, it is important to use reengineering techniques to discover the ITI topology. We propose a reengineering technique to discover the topology of a distributed IT infrastructure, based on a multinomial logistic regression model and a set of topology stereotypes. To demonstrate the feasibility of the approach we applied the model to several organizations with distributed ITIs and, among other aspects, we found that the most recurrent stereotypes are the centralized and backbone ones.
Word-Initial Letters Influence Fixation Durations during Fluent Reading

The present study examined how word-initial letters influence lexical access during reading. Eye movements were monitored as participants read sentences containing target words. Three factors were independently manipulated. First, target words had either high or low constraining word-initial letter sequences (e.g., dwarf or clown, respectively). Second, targets were either high or low in frequency of occurrence (e.g., train or stain, respectively). Third, targets were embedded in either biasing or neutral contexts (i.e., targets were high or low in their predictability). This 2 (constraint) × 2 (frequency) × 2 (context) design allowed us to examine the conditions under which a word’s initial letter sequence could facilitate processing. Analyses of fixation duration data revealed significant main effects of constraint, frequency, and context. Moreover, in measures taken to reflect “early” lexical processing (i.e., first and single fixation duration), there was a significant interaction between constraint and context. The overall pattern of findings suggests lexical access is facilitated by highly constraining word-initial letters. Results are discussed in comparison to recent studies of lexical features involved in word recognition during reading.
Mastitis in dairy cows associated with an aerotolerant campylobacter

During the course of a study of an outbreak of mastitis in a dairy herd, an aerotolerant campylobacter was isolated from a milk sample. This organism was cultured and the right front quarters of four young Friesian cows were infected by intramammary inoculation. Each infected quarter developed an acute clinical mastitis which resolved spontaneously after 120 hours. The challenge organism was reisolated from one of the quarters.
Unidirectional coupler for surface plasmon polariton using total external reflection of high index material

The surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) have been researched intensively, the very low coupling efficiency of the SPPs brings about difficulty in practical experiment. We proposed a unidirectional coupler for the SPPs using total external reflection. If the high-index dielectric is located on the left side of the slit, the SPPs toward the left side cannot propagate due to the cut-off property, and they should be totally reflected. By properly designing the structure parameter for constructive interference between the reflected Spp mode and the right-ward propagating SPP mode can happen, resulting in enhancement of the coupling efficiency of the SPPs.
A Protein Interaction Map of Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila melanogaster is a proven model system for many aspects of human biology. Here we present a two-hybrid–based protein-interaction map of the fly proteome. A total of 10,623 predicted transcripts were isolated and screened against standard and normalized complementary DNA libraries to produce a draft map of 7048 proteins and 20,405 interactions. A computational method of rating two-hybrid interaction confidence was developed to refine this draft map to a higher confidence map of 4679 proteins and 4780 interactions. Statistical modeling of the network showed two levels of organization: a short-range organization, presumably corresponding to multiprotein complexes, and a more global organization, presumably corresponding to intercomplex connections. The network recapitulated known pathways, extended pathways, and uncovered previously unknown pathway components. This map serves as a starting point for a systems biology modeling of multicellular organisms, including humans.
Learning hidden information: SVM+

In this talk, I consider a new setting of the learning problems, where on the training stage one can use information that will be hidden on the test stage. It requires one to construct methods of learning which using both hidden and non-hidden information on the training stage, will be able to construct a rule that on the test stage uses only non-hidden information, and performs better than rules that can be obtained by conventional learning methods. I will introduce a new learning methods (both for pattern recognition and regression estimation) called SVM+ that generalises SVM and can solve this problem. The detailed description of SVM+ one can find in the Afterword of the 2nd Edition of my book Estimation of Dependencies Based on Empirical Data, Springer 2006.
Salmeterol for the prevention of high-altitude pulmonary edema.

BACKGROUND Pulmonary edema results from a persistent imbalance between forces that drive water into the air space and the physiologic mechanisms that remove it. Among the latter, the absorption of liquid driven by active alveolar transepithelial sodium transport has an important role; a defect of this mechanism may predispose patients to pulmonary edema. Beta-adrenergic agonists up-regulate the clearance of alveolar fluid and attenuate pulmonary edema in animal models. METHODS In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study, we assessed the effects of prophylactic inhalation of the beta-adrenergic agonist salmeterol on the incidence of pulmonary edema during exposure to high altitudes (4559 m, reached in less than 22 hours) in 37 subjects who were susceptible to high-altitude pulmonary edema. We also measured the nasal transepithelial potential difference, a marker of the transepithelial sodium and water transport in the distal airways, in 33 mountaineers who were prone to high-altitude pulmonary edema and 33 mountaineers who were resistant to this condition. RESULTS Prophylactic inhalation of salmeterol decreased the incidence of high-altitude pulmonary edema in susceptible subjects by more than 50 percent, from 74 percent with placebo to 33 percent (P=0.02). The nasal potential-difference value under low-altitude conditions was more than 30 percent lower in the subjects who were susceptible to high-altitude pulmonary edema than in those who were not susceptible (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Prophylactic inhalation of a beta-adrenergic agonist reduces the risk of high-altitude pulmonary edema. Sodium-dependent absorption of liquid from the airways may be defective in patients who are susceptible to high-altitude pulmonary edema. These findings support the concept that sodium-driven clearance of alveolar fluid may have a pathogenic role in pulmonary edema in humans and therefore represent an appropriate target for therapy.
Interrogation à base d'Annotation Sémantique

Resume. Les approches de la recherche d’information (RI) actuelles ne saisissent pas formellement la signification explicite d'une requete a base de mots-cles mais fournissent une voie confortable pour l'utilisateur qui specifie ces besoins en informations sur la base des mots-cles. La recherche semantique promet de fournir des resultats plus precis que la traditionnelle recherche par mots-cles. Toutefois, les progres de la recherche semantique ont ete retardes en raison de la complexite de ses langages de requete. Dans ce document, nous explorons une nouvelle approche pour l'adaptation des requetes motscles pour pouvoir interroger le web semantique en se basant sur les annotations semantiques: l'approche traduit automatiquement des requetes mots cles en des requetes formelles, afin de permettre aux utilisateurs finaux familiarises avec l’utilisation des mots cles d’utiliser ces mots-cles pour effectuer des recherches semantiques. Un prototype de systeme a ete mis en œuvre sur la lumiere de cette approche. Etant donne une requete mots cles, notre systeme donne en resultats une liste classe de requetes SPARQL en tant que resultat de la traduction. La traduction dans notre systeme se compose de trois grandes etapes: Mapping des mots cles aux elements de la B.C., Construction des graphes requetes et Classement des requetes. Avec les premiers tests notre systeme a realise des resultats de traduction encourageant.
Capacity Bounds for Relay Channels With Intersymbol Interference and Colored Gaussian Noise

The capacity of a relay channel with intersymbol interference (ISI) and additive colored Gaussian noise is examined under an input power constraint. Prior results are used to show that the capacity of this channel can be computed by examining the circular degraded relay channel in the limit of infinite block length. The current work provides single letter expressions for the achievable rates with decode-and-forward (DF) and compress-and-forward (CF) processing employed at the relay. Additionally, the cut-set bound for the relay channel is generalized for the ISI/colored Gaussian noise scenario. All results hinge on showing the optimality of the decomposition of the relay channel with ISI/colored Gaussian noise into an equivalent collection of coupled parallel, scalar, memoryless relay channels. The region of optimality of the DF and CF achievable rates is also discussed. The resulting rates are illustrated through the computation of numerical examples.
High concentration of childhood deaths in the low-lying areas of Chakaria HDSS, Bangladesh: findings from a spatial analysis

Background: Despite significant reduction of childhood mortality in Bangladesh, large spatial variations persist. Identification of lower level spatial units with higher concentrations of deaths can be useful for strengthening services in these areas. This paper reports findings from a spatial analysis of deaths in Chakaria, a rural subdistrict, where a Health and Demographic Surveillance System has been in place since 1999. Chakaria is an INDEPTH member site. Methods : An analysis was done of 339 deaths among nearly 24,500 children under the age of five during 2005–2008. One ward, the lowest level of administrative units, was the unit of spatial analysis. Data from 24 wards were analyzed. The Discrete Poisson Probability Model was used to identify the clustering of deaths. Results : Deaths were concentrated within 12 wards located in the low-lying deltaic flood plains of the Chakaria HDSS area. The risk of death in the low-lying areas was statistically, significantly higher, 1.5 times, than the non-low-lying areas (p<0.02). Conclusion : Spatial analysis can be a useful tool for identifying high-risk mortality areas. An understanding of the risk factors prevalent in the low-lying areas can help design effective interventions to reduce mortality in these areas.
Asymmetry in mean-reverting behavior of Asean stock market returns

Ovaj rad obrađuje ponasanje kretanja prosjecnih vrijednosti sest tržista ASEAN-a – indonezijskog, malezijskog, filipinskog, singapurskog, tajlandskog i vijetnamskog – koristeci eksponencijalni autoregresijski GARCH-M model i dnevne podatke od kolovoza 2000. do svibnja 2010. Rezultati ukazuju na veliku brzinu povratka na prosjecne vrijednosti u zaradama ovih tržista no s jasno vidljivim uzorkom dinamike zarade. Postoje cvrsti dokazi koji ukazuju na asimetricno kretanje prosjecnih vrijednosti i pretjerane reakcije za vrijeme pada tržista na indonezijskom tržistu. Vijetnamsko tržiste pokazuje najustrajniju autokorelaciju zarade s nekim dokazima koji upucuju na vecu ustrajnost za vrijeme pada tržista. Ipak, ne postoje dokazi koji bi upucivali na znacajniju serijsku korelaciju na tržistima Singapura i Tajlanda. Na kraju, efekt poluge je zabilježen na svim tržistima osim vijetnamskog. Privremeno te razlike pripisujemo fazama razvoja tržista i, u skladu s njihovim razinama efikasnosti, stupnju volatilnosti tržista.
Retrofitting methanol plants for higher alcohols

As tetraethyl lead is phased out of gasoline, a market might develop for high alcohols as cosolvents in methanol-gasoline blends. Retrofitting less efficient methanol plants for cosolvent/methanol production could be attractive. In this paper the authors explore how constraints imposed by existing process equipment interact in integrated process simulations to determine the size of the investment required for retrofit, the capacity of the plant and the approximate manufacturing costs. In minimum cost retrofits with current catalyst technology, only 42% of the plant's original capacity is obtained in these simulations. This is only 65% of the limit set by the stoichiometry for the conversion. With catalysts as efficient as those used in methanol manufacture, 62% of the original capacity could be obtained. This is 96% of the limit set by stoichiometry. The syngas generation section must be upgraded in more expensive retrofits to obtain higher production rates.
I want my voice to be heard: IP over Voice-over-IP for unobservable censorship circumvention

Open communication over the Internet poses a serious threat to countries with repressive regimes, leading them to develop and deploy censorship mechanisms within their networks. Unfortunately, existing censorship circumvention systems face difficulties in providing unobservable communication with their clients; this highly limits their availability as censors can easily block access to circumvention systems that make observable communication patterns. Moreover, the lack of unobservability may pose serious threats to their users. Recent research takes various approaches to tackle this problem, however they introduce new challenges, and the provided unobservability is breakable. In this paper we propose an easy-to-deploy and unobservable censorship-resistant infrastructure, called FreeWave. FreeWave works by modulating a client’s Internet traffic into acoustic signals that are carried over VoIP connections. Such VoIP connections are targeted to a server, the FreeWave server, that extracts the tunneled traffic and proxies them to the uncensored Internet. The use of actual VoIP connections, as opposed to traffic morphing, allows FreeWave to relay its VoIP connections through oblivious VoIP nodes (e.g., Skype supernodes), hence keeping the FreeWave server(s) unobservable and unblockable. In addition, the use of end-to-end encryption, which is supported/mandated by most VoIP providers like Skype, prevents censors from distinguishing FreeWave’s VoIP connections from regular VoIP connections. To utilize a VoIP connection’s throughput efficiently we design communications encoders tailored specifically for VoIP’s lossy channel. We prototype FreeWave over Skype, the most popular VoIP system. We show that FreeWave is able to reliably achieve communication throughputs that are sufficient for web browsing, even when clients are far distanced from the FreeWave server. We also validate FreeWave’s communication unobservability against traffic analysis and standard censorship techniques. Keywords-Internet Censorship; Circumvention; VoIP;
BMAA Inhibits Nitrogen Fixation in the Cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. PCC 7120

Cyanobacteria produce a range of secondary metabolites, one being the neurotoxic non-protein amino acid β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), proposed to be a causative agent of human neurodegeneration. As for most cyanotoxins, the function of BMAA in cyanobacteria is unknown. Here, we examined the effects of BMAA on the physiology of the filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. PCC 7120. Our data show that exogenously applied BMAA rapidly inhibits nitrogenase activity (acetylene reduction assay), even at micromolar concentrations, and that the inhibition was considerably more severe than that induced by combined nitrogen sources and most other amino acids. BMAA also caused growth arrest and massive cellular glycogen accumulation, as observed by electron microscopy. With nitrogen fixation being a process highly sensitive to oxygen species we propose that the BMAA effects found here may be related to the production of reactive oxygen species, as reported for other organisms.
Inhibition of secretion of a mutant lipoprotein across the cytoplasmic membrane by the wild-type lipoprotein of the Escherichia coli outer membrane

A globomycin-resistant mutant of Escherichia coli was found to produce a precursor of the major outer membrane lipoprotein (prolipoprotein), in which the glycine residue at position 14 within the signal peptide was replaced by an aspartic acid residue. The same mutation has been reported by Lin et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 175:4891-4895, 1978). The structural gene of the mutant prolipoprotein was inserted into an inducible expression cloning vehicle. When the mutant prolipoprotein was produced in lipoprotein-minus host cells, 82% of the unprocessed protein was found in the membrane fraction, with the remaining 18% localized in the soluble fraction. However, when the production of the mutant prolipoprotein was induced in the wild-type lpp+ host cells, only 31% of the mutant prolipoprotein was found in the membrane fraction, leaving the remaining 69% in the soluble, cytoplasmic fraction. In addition, the assembly of the wild-type lipoprotein in these cells was not affected, whether the mutant prolipoprotein was produced or not. These results suggest that secretions of both mutant and wild-type prolipoproteins utilize the same component(s) responsible for the initial stages of secretion across the cytoplasmic membrane. However, it appears that the wild-type lipoprotein has a higher affinity for these components than does the mutant lipoprotein.
Theoretical research on damage mechanism of ultrafast laser ablation crystal silicon

High peak power picosecond laser ablation of silicon draws great attention in solar cell manufacture,laser optoelectric countermeasure applications, eta. This paper reports the damage process of ultrafast lasers interaction with silicon,which is based on Two-Temperature Model(TTM) and 1-on-1 damage threshold test method. Pulsed laser caused damage manifests in several ways, such as heat damage, mechanical effect and even eletrical effect. In this paper, a modified Two Temperature Model is applied in ultrashort laser interaction with silicon.The traditional Two-Temperature Model methods is proposed by Anismov in 1970s to calculate the interaction between ultrafast laser with metals, which is composed of free electrons and lattice. Beyond the carrier and lattice temperture model, an additional excited term and Auger recombination term of carriers is taken into account in this modified Two-Temperature Model model to reflect the characteristics in semicondutors. Under the same pulse-duration condition, the damage threshold is found to be 161 mJ/cm2 and a characteritic double-peak shape shows up. As the pulse energy density rises from 50mJ/cm2 to 161 mJ/cm2, the difference between carrier and lattice temperature steps down proportionally.Also,a detailed interaction process between photon-electron and electron-phonon is discussed. Electron and lattice temperature evolutes distinctly different, while the former is much higher than the latter until heat tranfer finished at 200 picoseconds. Two-peak feature of electron temperature is also identified. As the pulse duration increases from 20 picosecond to 60 picosecond, the he difference between carrier and lattice temperature steps down significantly. The calculated damage threshold does not change fundamentally, remaining approximately 0.16J/cm2. Also, the damage mechanism is found to be thermal heating with the pulse width between 20 and 60 picoseconds at threshold fluences which is identical to experiment test result. This research is valuable to laser applications and/or laser shielding applications.
High-power violet light emitting diodes with electroplating copper heat spreader

Using self-alignment photolithography and copper electroforming techniques, we have developed a size of 1mm×1mm high power GaN-based violet LED embedded in a reflective cup-shaped copper heat spreader. The packaged LED chip sample with copper heat spreader driven at 1 A current yield the light output power of 310 mW, about 1.55 times to the conventional LED. Moreover, the power efficiency is remarkably increased from 4.21% to 6.61% at the same driven current. These results indicate that the novel heat dissipation, a direct Cu heat spreader by a metal connection to the device, did efficiently extract the heat from the chip. The result exhibit a new solution to thermal management of high power GaN-based violet LED samples.