Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of fabric structure on the liquid transport characteristics of nonwoven wound dressings

Nonwoven materials are widely used in medical and hygiene applications, and may demonstrate significant anisotropic characteristics in liquid transport. This study investigates the anisotropic liquid transport in such structures, and establishes a relationship between the structure and anisotropic properties of liquid transport. A comprehensive literature review is concerned with previous work on liquid transport in general with particular reference to its importance in the function of wound dressings. Preliminary experiments using commercial nonwoven wound dressing fabrics demonstrated the anisotropic nature of liquid absorption. After a review of existing steady state and dynamic methods of measuring the liquid transport in fabrics, a novel computer-integrated instrument is described that measures the in-plane liquid transmission in up to eight different directions. Needle-punched and hydroentangled fabrics with different structural parameters (fibre type, fibre diameter, fabric porosity and fibre orientation) were produced and characterised. The anisotropic liquid transport properties of these fabrics were tested using the new instrument. Unique theoretical models were established to predict the specific directional permeability of nonwoven fabrics based on the main fabric structural parameters (fibre diameter, fabric porosity and fibre orientation distribution).
The strategy behind Florida's “truth” campaign

This past summer Florida's Department of Health released the findings of its annual statewide survey on youth tobacco use. The study found that since 1998 the percentage of youth using tobacco in the past 30 days had declined by 7.4 percentage points (from 18.5% to 11.1%) in middle school and 4.8 percentage points (from 27.4% to 22.6%) in high school.1 In this volume of the journal, Sly and colleagues report the results of media tracking surveys conducted in Florida and other states, which demonstrate significant increases for Florida youth in confirmed awareness of the “truth” campaign's advertising, and significant positive change among Florida youth in anti-tobacco attitudes and tobacco use susceptibility, compared to other states.2 “Truth”, the unconventional counter-marketing effort which helped bring about these results, had its origin in the 1997 settlement between the tobacco industry and the state of Florida. Understanding the importance of prevention, the legislature and the late governor, Lawton Chiles, earmarked a portion of settlement funding for the creation of a dedicated anti-tobacco counter-marketing effort with the sole focus of reducing youth prevalence. In early 1998 our advertising agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, was hired to manage the account and create anti-tobacco advertising targeted at youth. In attributing successes or failures, it is often very difficult to isolate a single component that evidence points to being most responsible. The Florida programme is no different. To assist those involved in similar programmes, I have assembled the following overview of the key elements which collectively made “truth” successful. Florida's settlement with the tobacco companies totalled $11.3 billion dollars and included provisions for the funding of a two year $200 million dollar youth anti-tobacco education and marketing programme. With the launch of “truth” in early 1998, Florida became the first state to use substantial settlement dollars …
Prenatal diagnosis of Machado‐Joseph disease/spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 in Taiwan: Early detection of expanded ataxin‐3

Machado‐Joseph disease (MJD)/Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 3 (SCA3) is a rare autosomal dominative disorder in which one of the neurodegenerative disorders is caused by a translated CAG repeat expansion. Here, we present the first prenatal diagnosis of MJD in Taiwan in a woman whose husband was known to carry an unstable CAG repeat expansion in the MJD gene. After evaluating the couples' motivation and psychological tolerance, amniocentesis was performed at gestation of 13 weeks. The diagnosis was made using a simple nonradioactive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for rapid detection of the presence of an expanded MJD allele. Meanwhile, using radioactive PCR, we identified the presence of an unusual shortness of CAG expansion in the MJD gene with 74 repeats in the fetus compared with 78 repeats in the father. After termination of the pregnancy, Western blot analysis further confirmed the presence of normal and mutant ataxin‐3 in the fetal tissue. In summary, we have performed the first prenatal diagnosis of MJD in Taiwan, and described our experience with an at‐risk male requesting counseling, carrier testing, and prenatal diagnosis for Machado‐Joseph disease. Early detection of both normal and expanded ataxin‐3 in fetal tissues was first demonstrated in the present study. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 17: 195–200, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Set Intersection and Consistency in Constraint Networks

In this paper, we show that there is a close relation between consistency in a constraint network and set intersection. A proof schema is provided as a generic way to obtain consistency properties from properties on set intersection. This approach not only simplifies the understanding of and unifies many existing consistency results, but also directs the study of consistency to that of set intersection properties in many situations, as demonstrated by the results on the convexity and tightness of constraints in this paper. Specifically, we identify a new class of tree convex constraints where local consistency ensures global consistency. This generalizes row convex constraints. Various consistency results are also obtained on constraint networks where only some, in contrast to all in the existing work, constraints are tight.
Study of adhesion between two layers in multilayer rotomolded products

Manufacturing multilayer objects by rotomolding is a new technology, which is expected to have several industrial applications in future. For multilayer objects it is important to know whether the layers are adequately welded. This communication describes the characterization of the interface between two polymeric layers, grafted polyethylene and poly(ethylene vinyl alcohol), which were thermally welded during rotomolding.
Human emotion recognition using a deformable 3D facial expression model

Automatic emotion recognition from facial expression is one of the most intensively researched topics in affective computing and human-computer interaction. However, due to the lack of 3D feature and dynamic analysis the functional aspect of affective computing is insufficient for natural interaction. This paper presents an automatic emotion recognition approach from video sequences based on a fiducial point controlled 3D facial model. As a physics-based transformation, elastic body spline technology is applied on a facial mesh to generate a smooth warp that reflects the control point corresponding to the displacement of fiducial points. It also extracts the deformation feature from the realistic emotional expressions. Discriminative Isomap based classification is used to embed the deformation feature into a low dimensional manifold that spans in an expression space with one neutral and six emotion class centers. The final decision is made by computing the Nearest Class Center of the feature space.
Thermographic process monitoring in powderbed based additive manufacturing

Selective Laser Melting is utilized to build metallic parts directly from CAD-Data by solidification of thin powder layers through application of a fast scanning laser beam. In this study layerwise monitoring of the temperature distribution is used to gather information about the process stability and the resulting part quality. The heat distribution varies with different kinds of parameters including scan vector length, laser power, layer thickness and inter-part distance in the job layout which in turn influence the resulting part quality. By integration of an off-axis mounted uncooled thermal detector the solidification as well as the layer deposition are monitored and evaluated. Errors in the generation of new powder layers usually result in a locally varying layer thickness that may cause poor part quality. For effect quantification, the locally applied layer thickness is determined by evaluating the heat-up of the newly deposited powder. During the solidification process space and time-resolved data.
Solving a Bloody Mess: B-Vitamin Independent Metabolic Convergence among Gammaproteobacterial Obligate Endosymbionts from Blood-Feeding Arthropods and the Leech Haementeria officinalis

Endosymbiosis is a common phenomenon in nature, especially between bacteria and insects, whose typically unbalanced diets are usually complemented by their obligate endosymbionts. While much interest and focus has been directed toward phloem-feeders like aphids and mealybugs, blood-feeders such as the Lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum), Glossina flies, and the human body louse (Pediculus humanus corporis) depend on obligate endosymbionts which complement their B-vitamin-deficient diets, and thus are required for growth and survival. Glossiphoniid leeches have also been found to harbor distinct endosymbionts housed in specialized organs. Here, we present the genome of the bacterial endosymbiont from Haementeria officinalis, first of a glossiphoniid leech. This as-yet-unnamed endosymbiont belongs to the Gammaproteobacteria, has a pleomorphic shape and is restricted to bacteriocytes. For this bacterial endosymbiont, we propose the name Candidatus Providencia siddallii. This symbiont possesses a highly reduced genome with high A+T content and a reduced set of metabolic capabilities, all of which are common characteristics of ancient obligate endosymbionts of arthropods. Its genome has retained many pathways related to the biosynthesis of B-vitamins, pointing toward a role in supplementing the blood-restricted diet of its host. Through comparative genomics against the endosymbionts of A. americanum, Glossina flies, and P. humanus corporis, we were able to detect a high degree of metabolic convergence among these four very distantly related endosymbiotic bacteria.
Immunochemical termination of self-tolerance

The ability to selectively induce a strong immune response against self-proteins, or increase the immunogenicity of specific epitopes in foreign antigens, would have a significant impact on the production of vaccines for cancer, protein-misfolding diseases, and infectious diseases. Here, we show that site-specific incorporation of an immunogenic unnatural amino acid into a protein of interest produces high-titer antibodies that cross-react with WT protein. Specifically, mutation of a single tyrosine residue (Tyr86) of murine tumor necrosis factor-α (mTNF-α) to p-nitrophenylalanine (pNO2Phe) induced a high-titer antibody response in mice, whereas no significant antibody response was observed for a Tyr86 → Phe mutant. The antibodies generated against the pNO2Phe are highly cross-reactive with native mTNF-α and protect mice against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced death. This approach may provide a general method for inducing an antibody response to specific epitopes of self- and foreign antigens that lead to a neutralizing immune response.
5 Is This Fair to Hill-climbers?

It is shown that there are many functions which are GA-easy but not readily optimizable by a basic hill-climbing technique. The results, including a comparison of the genetic algorithm with a population of hill-climbers, provide insight into the operation of the GA and suggest further study of GA-easiness.
SUITABILITY OF RECYCLED CONCRETE AGGREGATE FOR USE IN BS 5328 DESIGNATED MIXES.

The paper describes a study undertaken to examine the suitability of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) for use in BS 5328 designated mixes. The results for the aggregate characteristics showed that plain as well as reinforced demolished concrete debris can be crushed using existing plant to provide RCA of physical properties that satisfy the current BS 882 requirements. The density of both fine and coarse RCA was found to be lower than that of natural aggregate (NA) and water absorption was three to six times higher. The results showed that original strength of the recycled concrete had a negligible effect on the fresh properties of the designated concrete mixes produced. Those mixes with high proportions of RCA were found to be harsh or less cohesive and exhibited higher bleeding, but this could be overcome using a filler material, such as coarse PFA. (A)
Promiscuity punishes sexual deviants

Sex is good for us, but it is a compromise. For the benefit of being able to produce genetically variable offspring, we must pay the cost of passing on only half our genes to each of them. Whilst evolutionary biologists still puzzle over the precise details of why the benefits of sex so frequently seem to outweigh the costs (Neiman, Lively, & Meirmans, ), one major challenge to sexual reproduction is the fact that if we pass on only half our genetic material to each gamete, there is a strong incentive for each individual allele to try to gain an unfair representation during gamete production. Fundamental to stabilizing sex once it evolves is therefore the ability to ensure a fair meiosis. Nevertheless, this system is not perfect, and some selfish genetic elements – so‐called meiotic drivers – manage to tip the meiotic scales in their favour and gain a transmission advantage (review in Burt and Trivers, ). In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Manser, Lindholm, Simmons, and Firman ( ) demonstrate that in house mice, the effectiveness of one such harmful transmission distorter is reduced by polyandry and hence that population viability can be somewhat restored by female promiscuity.
Elastic properties of cement-stabilised mixes with steel slag

In this study, we evaluated the elastic and mechanical properties of a new type of cement-stabilised material made with steel slag, varying the content of cement and steel slag. To study the elastic properties of these mixes, we measured their density, compressive strength and ultrasound pulse velocity at curing ages of 7, 28 and 90 days. The aggregate type and curing age greatly affected the elastic properties and varied much depending on the cement content. The Poisson's ratio chosen in analyses had little influence on the dynamic modulus. Various expressions given by building codes were used to predict the elastic properties of the mixtures. These codes generated very different values of the static modulus of elasticity, making most of them unsuitable for predicting the elastic properties of cement-stabilised materials. Using our experimental data, we provide the best combination of existing equations to predict elastic properties, and we conclude that measuring the ultrasound pulse velocity is a suitable way to predict the mechanic and elastic properties of cement-stabilised materials.
The CATH database: an extended protein family resource for structural and functional genomics

The CATH database of protein domain structures (http://www.biochem.ucl.ac.uk/bsm/cath_new) currently contains 34 287 domain structures classified into 1383 superfamilies and 3285 sequence families. Each structural family is expanded with domain sequence relatives recruited from GenBank using a variety of efficient sequence search protocols and reliable thresholds. This extended resource, known as the CATH-protein family database (CATH-PFDB) contains a total of 310 000 domain sequences classified into 26 812 sequence families. New sequence search protocols have been designed, based on these intermediate sequence libraries, to allow more regular updating of the classification. Further developments include the adaptation of a recently developed method for rapid structure comparison, based on secondary structure matching, for domain boundary assignment. The philosophy behind CATHEDRAL is the recognition of recurrent folds already classified in CATH. Benchmarking of CATHEDRAL, using manually validated domain assignments, demonstrated that 43% of domains boundaries could be completely automatically assigned. This is an improvement on a previous consensus approach for which only 10-20% of domains could be reliably processed in a completely automated fashion. Since domain boundary assignment is a significant bottleneck in the classification of new structures, CATHEDRAL will also help to increase the frequency of CATH updates.
Framing Indoor Tanning Warning Messages to Reduce Skin Cancer Risks Among Young Women: Implications for Research and Policy.

OBJECTIVES We investigated the impact of indoor tanning device warnings that communicate the risks associated with indoor tanning (i.e., loss framed) or the benefits of avoiding indoor tanning (i.e., gain framed). METHODS A convenience sample of non-Hispanic White women aged 18 to 30 years who tanned indoors at least once in the past year (n = 682) participated in a within-subjects experiment. Participants completed baseline measures and reported indoor tanning intentions and intentions to quit indoor tanning in response to 5 warning messages in random order. A text-only control warning was based on Food and Drug Administration-required warnings for indoor tanning devices. Experimental warnings included graphic content and were either gain or loss framed. RESULTS In multivariable analyses, gain-framed warnings did not differ from the control warning on women's intentions to tan indoors, but they prompted stronger intentions to quit than the control message. Loss-framed warnings significantly reduced intentions to tan indoors and increased intentions to quit indoor tanning compared with control and gain-framed warnings. CONCLUSIONS The public health impact of indoor tanning device warnings can be enhanced by incorporating graphic content and leveraging gain- and loss-framed messaging.
Repairing of Osteochondral Defects in Joint Using Beta-TCP/ Carboxymethyl Chitin Composite

Beta-tricalcium phosphate/carboxymethyl chitin composites [TCP/CMCh] of various ratios of TCP granules and CMCh were made and their mechanical properties, handling properties and repair performance for bone defects and for osteochondral defects were investigated. Water pooling ratio of CMCh was approximately 40 times the weight itself. TCP/CMCh of a higher TCP ratio had higher stress at 50%-strain. The stress at 50%-strain of TCP/CMCh with 0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10 TCP ratios was 0.12, 0.51, 1.08, 1.46, 1.67 (MPa, n=5), respectively. The TCP/CMCh with 5.0 TCP ratios had the best total scores in handling tests. The bone repair rate of TCP/CMCh was TCP ratio 2.5< Blank= TCP ratio 7.5< TCP ratio 5.0. In the implantation test for osteochondral defects, TCP/CMCh was completely absorbed at four weeks after surgery. Regeneration of the articular cartilage was seen with TCP/CMCh and HA/CMCh but not with TCP granules, which remained eight weeks after implantation. The regenerated articular cartilage had remained 32 weeks after implantation. In conclusion, it was demonstrated that this TCP/CMCh composite was a promising material for repairing osteochondral defects.
A spectral clustering approach to underdetermined postnonlinear blind source separation of sparse sources

This letter proposes a clustering-based approach for solving the underdetermined (i.e., fewer mixtures than sources) postnonlinear blind source separation (PNL BSS) problem when the sources are sparse. Although various algorithms exist for the underdetermined BSS problem for sparse sources, as well as for the PNL BSS problem with as many mixtures as sources, the nonlinear problem in an underdetermined scenario has not been satisfactorily solved yet. The method proposed in this letter aims at inverting the different nonlinearities, thus reducing the problem to linear underdetermined BSS. To this end, first a spectral clustering technique is applied that clusters the mixture samples into different sets corresponding to the different sources. Then, the inverse nonlinearities are estimated using a set of multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) that are trained by minimizing a specifically designed cost function. Finally, transforming each mixture by its corresponding inverse nonlinearity results in a linear underdetermined BSS problem, which can be solved using any of the existing methods
Characterization of two glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase isoenzymes from the pentalenolactone producer Streptomyces arenae

Pentalenolactone (PL) irreversibly inactivates the enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase [D-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate:NAD+ oxidoreductase (phosphorylating)] (EC 1.2.1.12) and thus is a potent inhibitor of glycolysis in both procaryotic and eucaryotic cells. We showed that PL-producing strain Streptomyces arenae TU469 contains a PL-insensitive glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase under conditions of PL production. In complex media no PL production was observed, and a PL-sensitive glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, rather than the insensitive enzyme, could be detected. The enzymes had the same substrate specificity but different catalytic and molecular properties. The apparent Km values of the PL-insensitive and PL-sensitive enzymes for glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate were 100 and 250 microM, respectively, and the PL-sensitive enzyme was strongly inhibited by PL under conditions in which the PL-insensitive enzyme was not inhibited. The physical properties of the PL-insensitive enzyme suggest that the protein is an octamer, whereas the PL-sensitive enzyme, like other glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenases, appears to be a tetramer.
Performance issues of enterprise level web proxies

Enterprise level web proxies relay world-wide web traffic between private networks and the Internet. They improve security, save network bandwidth, and reduce network latency. While the performance of web proxies has been analyzed based on synthetic workloads, little is known about their performance on real workloads. In this paper we present a study of two web proxies (CERN and Squid) executing real workloads on Digital's Palo Alto Gateway. We demonstrate that the simple CERN proxy architecture outperforms all but the latest version of Squid and continues to outperform cacheless configurations. For the measured load levels the Squid proxy used at least as many CPU, memory, and disk resources as CERN, in some configurations significantly more resources. At higher load levels the resource utilization requirements will cross and Squid will be the one using fewer resources. Lastly we found that cache hit rates of around 30% had very little effect on the requests service time.
Reducing social inequalities in health: the role of simulation modelling in chronic disease epidemiology to evaluate the impact of population health interventions

Reducing health inequalities has become a major public health priority internationally. However, how best to achieve this goal is not well understood. Population health intervention research has the potential to address some of this knowledge gap. This review argues that simulation studies can produce unique evidence to build the population health intervention research evidence base on reducing social inequalities in health. To this effect, the advantages of using simulation models over other population health intervention research methods are discussed. Key questions regarding the potential challenges of developing simulation models to investigate population health intervention research on reducing social inequalities in health and the types of population health intervention research questions that can be answered using this methodology are reviewed. We use the example of social inequalities in coronary heart disease to illustrate how simulation models can elucidate the effectiveness of a number of ‘what-if’ counterfactual population health interventions on reducing social inequalities in coronary heart disease. Simulation models are a flexible, cost-effective, evidence-based research method with the capacity to inform public health policy-makers regarding the implementation of population health interventions to reduce social inequalities in health.