Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nano and Ultra-fast Phase Change

ABSTRACT At the nano-scale, phase change behavior is different from that of bulk. In this paper 2 dimensional nano-phase change effect of GeSbTe was investigated theoretically and experimentally in terms of different film thickness and different material composition. The measured properties in this work include size dependent electrical resistance versus temperature/heating rate and melting point. Results reveal that material properties of GeSbTe are highly size dependent. The correlation between phase change speed and size is also discussed. Key words : nano-phase change, crystallization temperature, melting point. 1. INTRODUCTION Recently, chalcogenide-based phase change materials have been widely investigated and used in data storage technologies, such as optical rewritable disk and phase change memory. In optical rewritable disk, laser pulses cause the switching of phase change materials between low reflective amorphous and high reflective crystalline states. In phase change memory, the switching between the high resistance amorphous and low resistance crystalline states is induced by electrical pulses. With the demand for increasing data density, the storage unit continues shrinking and is developing at the nano-scale. At the nano-scale, extreme dimensional and nano-structural constraints and the large proportion of interfaces has strongly caused the deviation of the phase change behavior from that of bulk. Hence an in-depth understanding of nano phase change and the related issues has become more and more important. Nano phase change can be defined as: phase change at the scale within nano range of 100 nm, which is size-dependent, interface-dominated and surrounding materials related [1]. In fact, nano phhase change can be classified as 3 and 2 dimensional two types. This paper focuses on 2 dimensional nano phase change. Among the phase change materials, GeSbTe system is the most widely applied phase change alloy for these two applications due to its rapid phase transitions [2]. In this paper, we investigated the crystallization behavior of GeSbTe system with different film composition, Ge
Persistent scatterer pair ( PSP ) Interferometry and Surface Reconstruction Techniques for Urban DSM from High Resolution Satellite SAR Acquisitions

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry and radargrammetry are two well-known technologies for generating digital surface models (DSMs) from SAR data acquired from satellite or airplane. However, standard SAR interferometry and radargrammetry have strong limits for the derivation of DSMs over urban areas, due to the complexity of urban scenarios and the need for very high precision to reconstruct building shapes. Therefore, DSM or 3D models of urban areas are currently produced practically only based on photogrammetric or Lidar technologies. However, there are important reasons to consider also SAR data for the realization of urban DSMs. In fact, several areas in the world are not accessible by photogrammetric or Lidar technologies, due to frequent cloud coverage, or political or economical reasons. On the contrary, the existence nowadays of several high resolution satellite SAR missions can make available valuable data all over the world without the above mentioned limitations. In particular, the four satellites of the COSMO-SkyMed mission have been acquiring series of interferometric images over all main cities and sites of interest of the world. In this work, we propose the realization of urban DSMs from high resolution satellite SAR data: advanced interferometry techniques can provide a cloud of points (persistent scatterers – PS) localized with metric precision in the 3D space; then surface reconstruction techniques applied to this point cloud are used to calculate the urban surface model. For the first step it is important to use advanced interferometric techniques able to provide a cloud of points as dense as possible. The second step remains critical because the PS points are in any case very sparse and not distributed homogeneously. However, a priori information on the distribution of the PS and on the structure of the urban scenario can be exploited to help the surface reconstruction.
Design of stimuli-responsive dendrimers

Importance of the field: Dendrimers are synthetic macromolecules with well-defined structures, many terminal functional groups, and an inner space to hold small molecules. These properties make them potential drug carriers. Recently, stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems have become attractive because of the reduction of side effects and maximum expression of drug action. Areas covered in this review: This paper reviews dendrimer nanoparticles that are sensitive to temperature, light, pH and redox state. What the reader will gain: Strategies to design these dendritic polymers are provided in this review. Take home message: By adding stimuli-responsive properties to the dendrimers, dendritic polymers capable of controlled release can be produced. These stimuli-responsive dendrimers are a potential next generation drug carrier.
Diagnostic accuracy of rapid tests for sexually transmitted infections in symptomatic women

Objective To determine the diagnostic accuracy of tests developed for use at the point of care for Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) and syphilis in women having symptoms of lower urinary tract infection. Methods Cross-sectional study involving sexually active 14–49-year-old women with lower urinary tract infection symptoms consulting during 2010 at a private health clinic and at two public hospitals in Bogotá, Colombia. Pregnant women, those with a previous hysterectomy or those who received antibiotics during the previous 7 days were excluded. Sequential sampling was used; sample size: 1500 women. The ACON NG and CT duo test combo and the ACON individual test plates for NG and separately for CT were used. The QuickVue Chlamydia rapid test (RT) was also used. All of them were compared with nucleic acid amplification methods. The SD Bioline 3.0 and ACON test for syphilis were evaluated and compared with serological tests. Sensitivity and specificity were estimated. Results CT RTs had a sensitivity that ranged between 22.7% and 37.7% and specificity between 99.3% and 100%. Sensitivity for NG with ACON Duo was 12.5% and specificity 99.8%. Tests for syphilis had a sensitivity of 91.6–100% and a specificity of 99.7–97.8%. Conclusions The RTs studied are not useful for screening for NG at the point of care. In case of CT a recommendation about their use in routine care should be supported by a cost-effectiveness analysis. In screening populations at high risk of sexually transmitted infections or pregnant women, the RTs for syphilis should be used.
Establishing a nicotine threshold for addiction. The implications for tobacco regulation.

On February 25, 1994, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a letter to the Coalition on Smoking or Health announcing its intention to consider regulating cigarettes. The agency's premises were that the vast majority of tobacco users self-administer the product for the drug effects of nicotine and to sustain addiction and that cigarette manufacturers control the levels of nicotine in cigarettes to maintain this addiction. The FDA further raised the possibility of regulating cigarettes on the basis of their nicotine content to prevent addiction. On February 28, 1994, the ABC news program Day One presented evidence that tobacco manufacturers .
Migration of bisphenol A from polycarbonate plastic of different qualities: Environmental project No. 1710 , 2015

Disclaimer: When the occasion arises, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency will publish reports and papers concerning research and development projects within the environmental sector, financed by study grants provided by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. It should be noted that such publications do not necessarily reflect the position or opinion of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. However, publication does indicate that, in the opinion of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, the content represents an important contribution to the debate surrounding Danish environmental policy.
Gelatinous Marrow Transformation: A Series of 11 Cases from a Tertiary Care Centre in South India

Gelatinous marrow transformation (GMT) or serous atrophy of bone marrow (BM) is a rare disease characterised by focal marrow hypoplasia, fat atrophy, and accumulation of extracellular mucopolysaccharides abundant in hyaluronic acid. This study reviews 11 cases of GMT from South India. Clinical and haematological parameters, BM aspirate, and biopsies of all patients diagnosed with GMT over a period of 7 years were studied. GMT was diagnosed in BM biopsy based on characteristic morphological appearance and was confirmed by alcian blue positive staining pattern at pH levels of 2.5 and 0.5. Eleven patients were diagnosed with GMT. All were males within the age range of 15 to 50 years. The underlying clinical diagnosis was human immunodeficiency virus positivity in 5 cases, 2 with coexistent disseminated tuberculosis, 1 with cryptococcal meningitis, and 1 with oral candidiasis; disseminated tuberculosis in 1 case; pyrexia of unknown origin in 2 cases; Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1 case; acute lymphoblastic lymphoma with maintenance chemotherapy in 1 case; and alcoholic pancreatitis in 1 case. BM aspirates showed gelatinous metachromatic seromucinous material in 3 cases. BM biopsies were hypocellular in 7 and normocellular in 4 cases and showed focal GMT in 5 and diffuse GMT in 6 cases. Reactive changes were seen in 4 cases and haemophagocytosis in addition to GMT in 1 case. GMT is a relatively uncommon condition and an indicator of severe illness. It should be differentiated from myelonecrosis, amyloidosis, and marrow oedema. A high index of suspicion is required to diagnose this condition.
Beyond “all-or-nothing” climbing fibers: graded representation of teaching signals in Purkinje cells

Arguments about the function of the climbing fiber (CF) input to the cerebellar cortex have fueled a rabid debate that started over 40 years ago, and continues to polarize the field to this day. The origin of the controversy can be traced back to 1969, the year David Marr published part of his dissertation work in a paper entitled “A theory of cerebellar cortex. ” In Marr’s theory, CFs play a key role during the process of motor learning, providing an instructive signal that serves as a “teacher” for the post-synaptic Purkinje cells. Although this influential idea has found its way into the mainstream, a number of objections have been raised. For example, several investigators have pointed out that the seemingly “all-or-nothing” activation of the CF input provides little information and is too ambiguous to serve as an effective instructive signal. Here, we take a fresh look at these arguments in light of new evidence about the peculiar physiology of CFs. Based on recent findings we propose that at the level of an individual Purkinje cell, a graded instructive signal can be effectively encoded via pre- or post-synaptic modulation of its one and only CF input.
Plane-wave diffraction at a grating composed of left-handed materials

Binary gratings made of left-handed materials may be considered as novel tools for optical signal processing. In this work, their diffraction properties have been investigated with the help of a semi-analytical numerical method. The method uses an equivalent transmission-line formulation of Maxwell's equations for periodic structures. Being fully vectorial, the formulation can accommodate for negative permittivity and permeability. Using it, one can exploit the circuit theory of transmission lines to develop an absolutely convergent computational method of analysis for periodic structures composed of left-handed materials. In such structures, complex modes have been observed.
Energy-Efficient Cloud Computing

Energy efficiency is increasingly important for future information and communication technologies (ICT), because the increased usage of ICT, together with increasing energy costs and the need to reduce green house gas emissions call for energy-efficient technologies that decrease the overall energy consumption of computation, storage and communications. Cloud computing has recently received considerable attention, as a promising approach for delivering ICT services by improving the utilization of data centre resources. In principle, cloud computing can be an inherently energy-efficient technology for ICT provided that its potential for significant energy savings that have so far focused on hardware aspects, can be fully explored with respect to system operation and networking aspects. Thus this paper, in the context of cloud computing, reviews the usage of methods and technologies currently used for energy-efficient operation of computer hardware and network infrastructure. After surveying some of the current best practice and relevant literature in this area, this paper identifies some of the remaining key research challenges that arise when such energy-saving techniques are extended for use in cloud computing environments.
An Insight into the Triabin Protein Family of American Hematophagous Reduviids: Functional, Structural and Phylogenetic Analysis

A transcriptomic analysis of the saliva of T. pallidipennis together with a short proteomic analysis were carried out to reveal novel primary structures of the lipocalin/triabin protein families in this reduviid. Although triabins share some structural characteristics to lipocalins and they are classified as in the calcyn/lipocalin superfamily, triabins differ from lipocalins in the direction of β-strands in the general conformation of the β-barrel. The triabin protein family encompasses a wide variety of proteins, which disrupt the hemostasis of warm-blooded animals. Likewise, the function of proteins classified as triabins includes proteins that are carriers of small molecules, protease inhibitors, binders of specific cell-surface receptors as well as proteins that form complexes with other macromolecules. For example, triabin and pallidipin from the saliva of T. pallidipennis are thrombin and platelet aggregation inhibitors, respectively; triplatin from T. infestans binds to thromboxane A2; and nitrophorin from Rhodnius prolixus carries nitric oxide. Therefore, based on 42 new transcriptome sequences of triabins from the salivary glands of T. pallidipennis reported at present, and on triabin sequences of other American hematophagous reduviids already reported in the literature, subfamilies of triabins were proposed following phylogenetic analyses and functional characterization of triabin members. Eight subfamilies of proteins were recognized with known functions, which were the nitrophorin and amine binding proteins, Rhodnius prolixus aggregation inhibitor, triafestin, triatin, dipetalodipin and pallidipin, triplatin and infestilin, dimiconin and triabin, and procalin subfamilies. Interestingly, 70% of the analyzed sequences came from these eight subfamilies because there was no biological function associated with them, implying the existence of a vast number of proteins with potential novel biological activities.
A comparison of key-point descriptors for the stereo matching algorithm

In this paper, the comparison of a novel key-point image descriptors such as DAISY, BRISK, A-KAZE and LATCH with the well-known SIFT and SURF descriptors are tested and compared for the stereo matching algorithm. The main idea of this paper is to present an independent, comparative study and some of the benefits and drawbacks of these most popular image descriptors on stereo images. These descriptors are the primary input for the image correspondence algorithm (stereo matching algorithm). On this assumption, it is possible to estimate depth information from two stereo images. Two sets of experiments are conducted for relative performance evaluations. In the first part of our experiments, the accuracy of stereo matching algorithm using descriptors is demonstrated. The overall time execution is evaluated in the second set of our experiments. The all experiments have been tested on Middlebury stereo-dataset using programming language Python. The experimental result shows that the DAISY descriptor provides better results as A-KAZE or LATCH. On the other hand, DAISY descriptor is slower than SURF. The algorithm based on a DAISY descriptor is effective for matching stereo image pair and these correspondences can be used as input for 3D reconstruction.
The Efficacy of Some Commercially Available Insect Repellents for Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) and Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae)

Reducing the number of host-vector interactions is an effective way to reduce the spread of vector-borne diseases. Repellents are widely used to protect humans from a variety of protozoans, viruses, and nematodes. DEET (N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide), a safe and effective repellent, was developed during World War II. Fear of possible side effects of DEET has created a large market for “natural” DEET-free repellents with a variety of active ingredients. We present a comparative study on the efficacy of eight commercially available products, two fragrances, and a vitamin B patch. The products were tested using a human hand as attractant in a Y-tube olfactometer setup with Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse), both major human disease vectors. We found that Ae. albopictus were generally less attracted to the test subject’s hand compared with Ae, aegypti. Repellents with DEET as active ingredient had a prominent repellency effect over longer times and on both species. Repellents containing p-menthane-3,8-diol produced comparable results but for shorter time periods. Some of the DEET-free products containing citronella or geraniol did not have any significant repellency effect. Interestingly, the perfume we tested had a modest repellency effect early after application, and the vitamin B patch had no effect on either species. This study shows that the different active ingredients in commercially available mosquito repellent products are not equivalent in terms of duration and strength of repellency. Our results suggest that products containing DEET or p-menthane-3,8-diol have long-lasting repellent effects and therefore provide good protection from mosquito-borne diseases.
Towards the integration of computational systems biology and high-throughput data: supporting differential analysis of microarray gene expression data

Summary The paradigmatic shift occurred in biology that led first to high-throughput experimental techniques and later to computational systems biology must be applied also to the analysis paradigm of the relation between local models and data to obtain an effective prediction tool. In this work we introduce a unifying notational framework for systems biology models and high-throughput data in order to allow new integrations on the systemic scale like the use of in silico predictions to support the mining of gene expression datasets. Using the framework, we propose two applications concerning the use of system level models to support the differential analysis of microarray expression data. We tested the potentialities of the approach with a specific microarray experiment on the phosphate system in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and a computational model of the PHO pathway that supports the systems biology concepts.
A Two-Phase Fuzzy Clustering Algorithm Based on Neurodynamic Optimization With Its Application for PolSAR Image Segmentation

This paper presents a two-phase fuzzy clustering algorithm based on neurodynamic optimization with its application for polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) remote sensing image segmentation. The two-phase clustering algorithm starts with the linear-assignment initialization phase with the least similar cluster representatives to remedy the inconsistency of clustering results from random initialization and is, then, followed with multiple-kernel fuzzy C-means clustering. By incorporating multiple kernels in the clustering framework, various features are incorporated cohesively. A winner-takes-all neural network is employed to acquire the highest kernel weights and associated cluster centers and membership matrices, which enables better characterization and adaptability in each individual cluster. Simulation results for UCI benchmark datasets and PolSAR remote sensing image segmentation are reported to substantiate the effectiveness and the superiority of the proposed clustering algorithm.
A reduced region of interest based approach for facial expression recognition from static images

The general approach to facial expression recognition involves three stages: face acquisition, feature extraction and expression recognition. A series of steps are used during feature extraction, and the robustness of a recognition model depends on the ability to handle exceptions over all these steps. This paper details experiments conducted to classify images by facial expression using reduced regions of interest and discriminative salient patches on the face, while minimizing the number of steps required for their localization. The performance of various feature descriptors is analyzed and a model for expression recognition for which experiments on the JAFFE database show effectiveness is proposed.
The influence of ileitis on the neurochemistry of the caudal mesenteric ganglion in the pig

Background Some literature data suggest that there is a regulatory neuronal circuit between the small and the large bowel. To verify this hypothesis the present study investigated: (i) the distribution, chemical coding and routing of caudal mesenteric ganglion (CaMG) neurons participating in an intestinointestinal reflex pathway involving ileal descending neurons and viscerofugal colonic neurons and (ii) possible changes in the neuroarchitecture of this pathway evoked by chemically induced ileitis in juvenile pigs (n = 16).