Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
REPETITIVE SHORT CIRCUIT BEHAVIOUR OF TRENCH-/FIELD-STOP IGBTS

This paper has a focus on the short- circuit robustness of eupec modules with 1200V 3 rd generation IGBT chip from Infineon. Short-circuit failure modes are described and measures with regard to an optimised and robust chip structure are presented. Measurements of repetitive short-circuit pulses based on the Trench/Field-Stop IGBT 3 show that the typical number of short circuit pulses until destruction depends exponentially on the maximum chip temperature reached within the pulse.
The Whole-Genome Sequence of Plasmid-Bearing Staphylococcus argenteus Strain B3-25B from Retail Beef Liver Encodes the Type VII Secretion System and Several Virulence Factors

The whole-genome sequence of Staphylococcus argenteus strain B3-25B, isolated from retail beef liver, comprises a circular chromosome (2,676,222 bp) and a single plasmid (21,570 bp). The chromosome harbors genes encoding the type VII secretion system and several virulence factors. ABSTRACT The whole-genome sequence of Staphylococcus argenteus strain B3-25B, isolated from retail beef liver, comprises a circular chromosome (2,676,222 bp) and a single plasmid (21,570 bp). The chromosome harbors genes encoding the type VII secretion system and several virulence factors.
Flexible Conductive Polymer Film Grafted with Azo-Moieties and Patterned by Light Illumination with Anisotropic Conductivity

In this work, we present the method for the creation of an anisotropic electric pattern on thin poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) films through PSS grafting by azo-containing moieties followed by light-induced polymers redistribution. Thin PEDOT:PSS films were deposited on the flexible and biodegradable polylactic acid (PLLA) substrates. The light-sensitive azo-groups were grafted to PSS using the diazonium chemistry followed by annealing in methanol. Local illumination of azo-grafted PEDOT:PSS films through the lithographic mask led to the conversion of azo-moieties in Z-configuration and further creation of the lateral gradient of azo-isomers along the film surface. The concentration gradient led to the migration of PSS away from the illuminated area, increasing the PEDOT chains’ concentration and the corresponding increase of local electrical conductivity in the illuminated place. Utilization of mask with linear pattern results in the appearance of conductive PEDOT-rich and non-conductive PSS-rich lines on the film surface, and final, lateral anisotropy of electric properties. Our work gives an optical lithography-based alternative to common methods for the creation of anisotropic electric properties, based on the spatial confinement of conductive polymer structures or their mechanical strains.
Root distribution variation of crops under walnut-based intercropping systems in the Loess Plateau of China.

Efficient managing practices require an understanding of the root distribution of crop in walnut (Juglans regia)-crop intercropping systems, a field study was conducted in the Loess Plateau of China to examined the vertical distribution and horizontal variation of roots for soybean (Glycine max) and peanut (Arachis hypogaea) grown with walnut trees. Crop roots were sampled to 60 cm depth at five distances from the tree row using stratified digging method. The results showed that 72.7% of total root length density (RLD) for intercropped soybean distributed in the 0-10 cm soil layer and sole soybean roots in the first soil layer were determined to 54.3% of total RLD. The RLD of intercropped peanut primarily located in the 0-10 cm soil layer, reaching the average of 52.8 cm dm -3 for the five distances from the tree row. While the maximum RLD of 62.1 cm dm -3 for sole peanut was achieved in the 10-20 cm soil layer. The RLDs of both intercropped soybean and peanut increased with distance from the tree row, but the corresponding values at 1-1.5 m and 1.5-2 m from the tree row were significantly less than those at other distances. In addition, although the depths of root vertical barycenter (RVB) for both intercropped soybean and peanut tend to move downward with distance from the tree row, they were always shallower than sole soybean and peanut. Greater proximity to the tree row reduced crop roots and, furthermore, compelled crop roots to highly concentrate in the upper soil layer (0-10 cm), especially within the range of 1-2 m from the tree row.
Properties of Luffa Fiber Reinforced PHBV Biodegradable Composites

In this study, composites of poly (hydroxybutyrate-co-valerate) (PHBV) with untreated luffa fibers (ULF) and NaOH-H2O2 treated luffa fibers (TLF) were prepared by hot press forming. The properties of luffa fibers (LFs) and composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and other analysis methods. Results showed that pre-treatment effectively removed pectin, hemicellulose, and lignin, thus reducing the moisture absorptivity of LFs. The flexural strength of TLF/PHBV was higher than that of ULF/PHBV. With 60% LF content, the flexural strengths of ULF/PHBV and TLF/PHBV reached 75.23 MPa and 90.73 MPa, respectively, 219.7% and 285.6% more than that of pure PHBV. Water absorptivities of composites increased with increase in LF content. Water absorptivity of TLF/PHBV was lower than that of ULF/PHBV. The flexural strengths of composites decreased after immersion in water at room temperature. Meanwhile, flexural strength of TLF/PHBV was lower than that of ULF/PHBV. Pretreatment of LFs effectively improved the bonding between fibers and PHBV, resulting in enhanced and thus improved the moisture resistance of composites.
Lattice Metamaterials with Mechanically Tunable Poisson’s Ratio for Vibration Control

© 2017 American Physical Society. Metamaterials with artificially designed architectures are increasingly considered as new paradigmatic material systems with unusual physical properties. Here, we report a class of architected lattice metamaterials with mechanically tunable negative Poisson's ratios and vibration-mitigation capability. The proposed lattice metamaterials are built by replacing regular straight beams with sinusoidally shaped ones, which are highly stretchable under uniaxial tension. Our experimental and numerical results indicate that the proposed lattices exhibit extreme Poisson's-ratio variations between -0.7 and 0.5 over large tensile deformations up to 50%. This large variation of Poisson's-ratio values is attributed to the deformation pattern switching from bending to stretching within the sinusoidally shaped beams. The interplay between the multiscale (ligament and cell) architecture and wave propagation also enables remarkable broadband vibration-mitigation capability of the lattice metamaterials, which can be dynamically tuned by an external mechanical stimulus. The material design strategy provides insights into the development of classes of architected metamaterials with potential applications including energy absorption, tunable acoustics, vibration control, responsive devices, soft robotics, and stretchable electronics.
Temozolomide in Glioblastoma Therapy: Role of Apoptosis, Senescence and Autophagy. Comment on Strobel et al., Temozolomide and Other Alkylating Agents in Glioblastoma Therapy. Biomedicines 2019, 7, 69

Temozolomide, a DNA methylating drug, is currently being used first-line in glioblastoma therapy. Although the mode of action of this so-called SN1 alkylating agent is well described, including the types of induced DNA damage triggering the DNA damage response and survival and death pathways, some researchers expressed doubt that data mostly obtained by in vitro models can be translated into the in vivo situation. In experimental settings, high doses of the agent are often used, which are likely to activate responses triggered by base N-alkylations instead of O6-methylguanine (O6MeG), which is the primary cytotoxic lesion induced by low doses of temozolomide and other methylating drugs in O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) repair incompetent cells. However, numerous studies provided compelling evidence that O6MeG is not only a mutagenic, but also a powerful toxic lesion inducing DNA double-strand breaks, apoptosis, autophagy and cellular senescence. MGMT, repairing the lesion through methyl group transfer, is a key node in protecting cells against all these effects and has a significant impact on patient’s survival following temozolomide therapy, supporting the notion that findings obtained on a molecular and cellular level can be translated to the therapeutic setting in vivo. This comment summarizes the current knowledge on O6MeG-triggered pathways, including dose dependence and the question of thresholds, and comes up with the conclusion that data obtained on cell lines using low dose protocols are relevant and apoptosis, autophagy and senescence are therapeutically important endpoints.
Ways to reduce the environmental impact of dairy farming

The image of dairy farming systems is increasingly being scrutinized by welfare organizations, activist groups and the public with intensive systems getting the most attention. So-called factory farms are being regarded by the public as not ideal for the production of products like milk and meat. Dairy cows, being ruminants, contribute directly to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) because of the way feed is digested. By comparing past to present production systems, it has been demonstrated that the efficiency of milk production has increased over the last 40 years resulted in lower GHG emissions per kg of milk produced. The best way to reduce the impact of livestock production on climate change is to improve the efficiency of production systems. This can be done by (1) higher milk yields and improved fertility in heifers and cows, (2) improving feed quality and management by reducing feed shrinkage during forage harvesting, feed delivery and storage, mixing and delivery of feeds and (3) to breed for cows producing less methane in the production of milk. Genetic gain is, however, a function of the accuracy of selection and genetic variation. Large quantities of data are required to estimate reliable genetic parameters for methane production. As the accuracy of directly measuring methane production cows would be difficult, an indirect indicator or associated trait would be required. The genetic correlation between direct methane production and the indicator trait would give an indication of such a possibility. As the amount of methane produced by cows is correlated to milk yield levels it would be possible to decrease the methane production of cows by selecting more efficient cows. The genetic variation suggests that reductions in the order of 11 to 26% in 10 years are theoretically possible.
Genetic modifiers of cystic fibrosis-related diabetes have extensive overlap with type 2 diabetes and related traits.

CONTEXT Individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) develop a distinct form of diabetes characterized by β-cell dysfunction and islet amyloid accumulation similar to type 2 diabetes (T2D) but generally normal insulin sensitivity. CF-related diabetes (CFRD) risk is determined by both CFTR, the gene responsible for CF, and other genetic variants. OBJECTIVE To identify genetic modifiers of CFRD and determine the genetic overlap with other types of diabetes. DESIGN AND PATIENTS A genome-wide association study was conducted for CFRD onset on 5740 individuals with CF. Weighted polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for T1D, T2D and diabetes endophenotypes were tested for association with CFRD. RESULTS Genome-wide significance was obtained for variants at a novel locus (PTMA) and two known CFRD genetic modifiers (TCF7L2 and SLC26A9). PTMA and SLC26A9 variants were CF-specific; TCF7L2 variants also associated with T2D. CFRD was strongly associated with PRSs for T2D, insulin secretion, post-challenge glucose concentration and fasting plasma glucose, and less strongly with T1D PRSs. CFRD was inconsistently associated with PRSs for insulin sensitivity and was not associated with a PRS for islet autoimmunity. A CFRD PRS comprised of variants selected from these PRSs (with FDR p-value<0.1) and the genome-wide significant variants was associated with CFRD in a replication population. CONCLUSIONS CFRD and T2D have more etiologic and mechanistic overlap than previously known, aligning along pathways involving β-cell function rather than insulin sensitivity. Two CFRD risk loci are unrelated to T2D and may affect multiple aspects of CF. An 18-variant PRS stratifies risk of CFRD in an independent population.
Computational Analysis of Multiparametric Flow Cytometric Data to Dissect B Cell Subsets in Vaccine Studies

The generation of the B cell response upon vaccination is characterized by the induction of different functional and phenotypic subpopulations and is strongly dependent on the vaccine formulation, including the adjuvant used. Here, we have profiled the different B cell subsets elicited upon vaccination, using machine learning methods for interpreting high‐dimensional flow cytometry data sets. The B cell response elicited by an adjuvanted vaccine formulation, compared to the antigen alone, was characterized using two automated methods based on clustering (FlowSOM) and dimensional reduction (t‐SNE) approaches. The clustering method identified, based on multiple marker expression, different B cell populations, including plasmablasts, plasma cells, germinal center B cells and their subsets, while this profiling was more difficult with t‐SNE analysis. When undefined phenotypes were detected, their characterization could be improved by integrating the t‐SNE spatial visualization of cells with the FlowSOM clusters. The frequency of some cellular subsets, in particular plasma cells, was significantly higher in lymph nodes of mice primed with the adjuvanted formulation compared to antigen alone. Thanks to this automatic data analysis it was possible to identify, in an unbiased way, different B cell populations and also intermediate stages of cell differentiation elicited by immunization, thus providing a signature of B cell recall response that can be hardly obtained with the classical bidimensional gating analysis. © 2019 The Authors. Cytometry Part A published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Advancement of Cytometry.
alt stress induces a decrease in excitation energy transfer from phycobilisomes o photosystem II but an increase to photosystem I in the cyanobacterium pirulina platensis

The effects of salt stress (0–0.8 M NaCl) on excitation energy transfer from phycobilisomes to photosystem I (PSI) and photosystem II (PSII) in the cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis were investigated. Salt stress resulted in a significant decrease in photosynthetic oxygen evolution activity and PSII electron transport activity, but a significant increase in PSI electron transport activity. Analyses of the polyphasic fluorescence transients (OJIP) showed that, with an increase in salt concentration, the fluorescence yield at the phases J, I and P declined considerably and the transient almost leveled off at 0.8 M NaCl. Analyses of the JIP test demonstrated that salt stress led to a decrease in the maximal efficiency of PSII photochemistry, the probability of electron transfer beyond QA, and the yield of electron transport beyond QA. In addition, salt stress resulted in a decrease in the electron transport per PSII reaction center, but an increase in the pirulina platensis absorption per PSII reaction center. However, there was no significant change in the trapping per PSII reaction center. Furthermore, there was a decrease in the concentration of the active PSII reaction centers. Analyses of 77 K chlorophyll fluorescence emission spectra excited either at 436 or 580 nm showed that salt stress inhibited excitation energy transfer from phycobilisomes to PSII but induced an increase in the efficiency of energy transfer from phycobilisomes to PSI. Based on these results, it is suggested that, through a down-regulation of PSII reaction centers and a shift of excitation energy transfer in favor of s pro PSI, the PSII apparatus wa
Effect of Laser Ablation on Microwave Attenuation Properties of Diamond Films

Thermal conductivity is required for developing high-power microwave technology. Diamond has the highest thermal conductivity in nature. In this study, a diamond film was synthesized by microwave plasma chemical deposition, and then long and short conductive graphite fibers were introduced to the diamond films by laser ablation. The permittivity of the samples in the K-band was measured using the transmission/reflection method. The permittivity of diamond films with short graphite fibers increased. The increase in real part of permittivity can be attributed to electron polarization, and the increase in the imaginary part can be ascribed to both polarization and electrical conductivity. The diamond films with long graphite fibers exhibited a highly pronounced anisotropy for microwave. The calculation of microwave absorption shows that reflection loss values exceeding −10 dB can be obtained in the frequency range of 21.3–23.5 GHz when the graphite fiber length is 0.7 mm and the sample thickness is 2.5 mm. Therefore, diamond films can be developed into a microwave attenuation material with extremely high thermal conductivity.
Inferring Soil Moisture Memory from Streamflow Observations Using a Simple Water Balance Model

AbstractSoil moisture is known for its integrative behavior and resulting memory characteristics. Soil moisture anomalies can persist for weeks or even months into the future, making initial soil moisture a potentially important contributor to skill in weather forecasting. A major difficulty when investigating soil moisture and its memory using observations is the sparse availability of long-term measurements and their limited spatial representativeness. In contrast, there is an abundance of long-term streamflow measurements for catchments of various sizes across the world. The authors investigate in this study whether such streamflow measurements can be used to infer and characterize soil moisture memory in respective catchments. Their approach uses a simple water balance model in which evapotranspiration and runoff ratios are expressed as simple functions of soil moisture; optimized functions for the model are determined using streamflow observations, and the optimized model in turn provides information.
Towards Therapeutic Alternatives for Mercury Neurotoxicity in the Amazon: Unraveling the Pre-Clinical Effects of the Superfruit Açaí (Euterpe oleracea, Mart.) as Juice for Human Consumption

Methylmercury (MeHg) exposure is a serious problem of public health, especially in the Amazon. Exposure in riverine populations is responsible for neurobehavioral abnormalities. It was hypothesized that consumption of Amazonian fruits could protect by reducing mercury accumulation. This work analyzed the effects of commercial samples of Euterpe oleracea (EO) for human consumption (10 μL/g) against MeHg i.p. exposure (2.5 mg/Kg), using neurobehavioral (open field, rotarod and pole tests), biochemical (lipid peroxidation and nitrite levels), aging-related (telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) mRNA expression) and toxicokinetic (MeHg content) parameters in mice. Both the pole and rotarod tests were the most sensitive tests accompanied by increased lipid peroxidation and nitrite levels in brains. MeHg reduced TERT mRNA about 50% demonstrating a strong pro-aging effect. The EO intake, similar to that of human populations, prevented all alterations, without changing the mercury content, but avoiding neurotoxicity and premature aging of the Central Nervous System (CNS). Contrary to the hypothesis found in the literature on the possible chelating properties of Amazonian fruits consumption, the effect of EO would be essentially pharmacodynamics, and possible mechanisms are discussed. Our data already support the regular consumption of EO as an excellent option for exposed Amazonian populations to have additional protection against MeHg intoxication.
Numerical study of crack path by MMCG specimen using M integral

The mixed mode loading configuration occurs in many civil engineering and mechanical applications. In wood material, the study of this problem is very important due to the orthotropic character and the heterogeneity of the material. In order to study the mixed mode loading in wood material, Moutou Pitti et al [1] have proposed a new specimen called Mixed Mode Crack Growth (MMCG). The main goal of this geometry is to propose a decrease of the energy release rate during the crack growth process. In this case, the fracture parameters can be decoupled into Mode I and Mode II in order to determine the impact of time during creep crack test. The present work proposes to study the crack path stability in MMCG specimen for different sizes and thicknesses. The M? integral, combining real and virtual mechanical displacement fields is used in order to separate numerically mode I and mode II in the mixed mode ratio. The stability is shown for the opening mode (Mode I), the shear mode (Mode II), and the mixed mode of 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75° by computing the energy release rate versus the crack length. Finally, it is shown that the MMCG specimen can be reduced in various shape and used for example in small climate chamber in order to perform creep test at different temperature and moisture content levels.
Classification Archaeological Fragments into Groups 1

The objective of this study is to suggest a method for classifying archeological fragments into groups. For this task, the method suggested begins with conversion of images from their original RGB color to a Hue, Saturation and Value (HSV) color. From that point forward, a 2D median filtering algorithm is implemented to remove any resultant noise. Next, each image is separated into six sub-block of equivalent size. In order to extract the feature for each sub-block, it is represented as a vector intersection of colors between each part of the image and the corresponding parts of the five remaining images. At this stage, we obtain a vector that consists of the six values for each image. For the last stage, a Self-Organization Map (SOM) Neural Network classifies the fragments into groups relying upon their HSV color feature. The algorithm was tested on several images of pottery fragments and the results achieved demonstrate this approach is promising and is able to cluster fragments into groups with high precision.
IT acceptance: understanding the words which describe what happens between users and technology Research-in-Progress

This is a work in progress paper in which we discuss the relationship between users and IT artifacts by means of the terms and expressions most frequently used in the literature to refer to this relationship. We propose the use of two new terms that we believe could help understanding some particularities of the IT implementation process, which happen after an organization adopts an artifact and its users accept to use it. Those terms are: ‘technology embracement’ and ‘technology grappling’. We will next study a case of IT implantation where we believe we will be able to find users that are favorable to the introduction of the new technology and others that are not. By analyzing their attitudes we plan to validate these expressions as representative of ways users behave in their interaction with artifacts and other users while they build their own versions of the ‘technology in use’.