Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Manipulate light polarizations by metamaterials: From microwave to optics

Recently, artificially designed metamaterials have become of considerable interests, because they exhibit extraordinary optical characteristics that do not exist in nature and promise many potential applications, such as negative refraction, subwavelength imaging, and electromagnetic invisibility cloaking. Although creating metamaterials at the optical frequency range faces numerous technological challenges, such materials with particular properties have been realized gradually based on new device concepts. In this talk, we present our efforts to employ specific metamaterials to manipulate the polarization states of incident lights, in both microwave [1, 2] and optical frequency regimes [3]. Experimental results reveal that the maximum polarization conversion ratio (PCR) value can reach 100% in microwave regime (see left figure below) and 92% in optical frequency (see right figure blow) under certain conditions. Theoretical studies combined with numerical simulations show that the governing physics is dominated by the unique reflection properties of the metamaterials.
Identification of intermediates leading to chloroform and C-4 diacids in the chlorination of humic acid.

The chlorination of terrestrial humic acid was studied at pH 7. 2 with varying chlorine to carbon ratios. The principal products are chloroform, di- and trichloroacetic acid, and chlorinated C-4 diacids. At a high chlorine dose many new chlorination products were detected, among them chlorinated aromatic acids. At a low chlorine dose a class of chlorinated compounds was found, which contained a trichloromethyl group. These compounds may be converted into chloroform and in most eases C-4 diacids by oxidation and hydrolysis reactions. Because these compounds are found mainly at low chlorine dosage, they may be regarded as intermediates in the reactions that give chloroform. The intermediates support the hypothesis of Rook that m-dihydroxybenzene moieties in humic acid are responsible for the formation of chloroform. A reaction scheme is proposed that explains the formation of the intermediates.
Fast Correlation for Gold Large Sets of Kasami Sequences

Compared with FFT (Fast Fourier Transform), only addition and subtraction operations are involved in FMT (Fast M-sequence Transform). In this paper, three classes of fast correlation algorithms for Gold large sets of Kasami sequences are proposed, where FMT is used for fast computation instead of FFT. Analytic results show that computational complexity can be greatly reduced by V-FMT Class and U-FMT Class algorithms. These proposed correlation algorithms with possible applications in low spectral density wireless communications such as the DS/CDMA system.
Deficiency of Antigen-Specific B Cells Results in Decreased Trypanosoma cruzi Systemic but Not Mucosal Immunity Due to CD8 T Cell Exhaustion

Vaccines against mucosally invasive, intracellular pathogens must induce a myriad of immune responses to provide optimal mucosal and systemic protection, including CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, and Ab-producing B cells. In general, CD4+ T cells are known to provide important helper functions for both CD8+ T cell and B cell responses. However, the relative importance of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, and B cells for mucosal protection is less clearly defined. We have studied these questions in detail using the murine model of Trypanosoma cruzi infection. Despite our initial hypothesis that mucosal Abs would be important, we show that B cells are critical for systemic, but not mucosal, T. cruzi protective immunity. B cell–deficient mice developed normal levels of CD8+ effector T cell responses early after mucosal T. cruzi infection and T. cruzi trans-sialidase vaccination. However, after highly virulent systemic challenge, T. cruzi immune mice lacking T. cruzi–specific B cells failed to control parasitemia or prevent death. Mechanistically, T. cruzi–specific CD8+ T cells generated in the absence of B cells expressed increased PD-1 and Lag-3 and became functionally exhausted after high-level T. cruzi systemic challenge. T. cruzi immune serum prevented CD8+ T cell functional exhaustion and reduced mortality in mice lacking B cells. Overall, these results demonstrate that T. cruzi–specific B cells are necessary during systemic, but not mucosal, parasite challenge.
Hypoxia Links ATR and p53 through Replication Arrest

ABSTRACT Previous studies have demonstrated that phosphorylation of human p53 on serine 15 contributes to protein stabilization after DNA damage and that this is mediated by the ATM family of kinases. However, cellular exposure to hypoxia does not induce any detectable level of DNA lesions compared to ionizing radiation, and the oxygen dependency of p53 protein accumulation differs from that of HIF-1, the hypoxia-inducible transcription factor. Here we show that, under severe hypoxic conditions, p53 protein accumulates only in S phase and this accumulation correlates with replication arrest. Inhibition of ATR kinase activity substantially reduces hypoxia-induced phosphorylation of p53 protein on serine 15 as well as p53 protein accumulation. Thus, hypoxia-induced cell growth arrest is tightly linked to an ATR-signaling pathway that is required for p53 modification and accumulation. These studies indicate that the ATR kinase plays an important role during tumor development in responding to hypoxia-induced replication arrest, and hypoxic conditions could select for the loss of key components of ATR-dependent checkpoint controls.
A Web-based design for the mobile transaction management of a distributed database system

A mobile transaction management system enables users to receive transaction based services from both static and mobile hosts distributed in a large scale network. The difficulty lies in the heterogeneity of computer systems and in the communication control to guarantee concurrency and consistency of transaction operations. The World Wide Web offers a uniform vehicle to interface with users ubiquitously and an ideal architecture to implement mobile transaction systems. The paper reports a design using Java, JDBC and Web browser to implement a distributed database system, particularly a transaction management system which covers mobile hosts and static workstations/PCs in which data and servers are replicated.
Research on the rotary-linear motion magnetic gear based on ANSYS

In this paper, the structure, features and operating principles of the rotational-linear magnetic drive gear based on the principles of the linear motor are analyzed. Using finite element analysis software ANSYS, 2-D and 3-D equivalent model on the overall structure of are established. Through model analysis, the design size of magnetic gear, its performance parameters are discussed. The curves of each parameter and the magnetic force, including the magnetic pole arc, the air gap thickness and tooth thickness are plotted. Considering the processing level of practical engineering, the magnetic gear structure is optimized. The simulation experiment on optimized structure verifies the feasibility of the improved structure.
Estimation of Age from the Teeth of Unidentified Corpses Using the Amino Acid Racemization Method with Reference to Actual Cases

We report the results of a study for estimating the age of unidentified corpses from teeth using the amino acid racemization method. By calculating the ratio of D-aspartic acid to L-aspartic acid (referred to as the D/L ratio), we studied samples from 24 corpses of known identity. The results showed that the approach yielded satisfactory age estimates with an accuracy of ± 3 years. Detailed examination of these results indicated that powdered dentin produced more favorable results than fragmented dentin. No differences in the estimated age related to cause of death were noted. However, better results were obtained with a larger number of control teeth and a higher correlation coefficient between the D/L ratio and the actual age of the control teeth. In terms of age and estimation accuracy, corpses of individuals >40 years of age generally gave more satisfactory results than those of younger individuals. It was also reconfirmed that preparation of control teeth is required each time an age estimate is performed.
What underlies the high alcohol related mortality of the disadvantaged: high morbidity or poor survival?

Study objective: To investigate whether the large socioeconomic differences in alcohol related mortality can be explained by differences in morbidity or differences in survival. Design: Register linkage study. A nationwide hospital discharge register was linked to population censuses for socioeconomic data and to the cause of death register for mortality follow up. Setting: Finland. Participants: Men and women aged 15 years and older discharged from hospitals with an alcohol related diagnosis in 1991–1996. Measurements: Mortality hazard up to the end of 1997 by socioeconomic category was estimated with Cox’s regression model. Main results: Socioeconomic differences in alcohol related hospitalisation rates were almost as large as those that have been observed for alcohol related mortality. For example, the rate ratio among male unspecialised workers for any alcohol related hospitalisations was 3.6 as compared with upper white collar workers; among women the rate ratio was 2.7. Depending on gender, age, hospitalisation diagnosis, and cause of death, survival after discharge either showed no socioeconomic differences or it was worse among better off groups. Conclusions: The study suggests that differences in survival after hospitalisation do not cause the high socioeconomic differences in alcohol related mortality.
Modélisation moléculaire des polymères linéaires

La modelisation moleculaire, de maniere generale, n’etait initialement destinee qu’aux theoriciens. Elle est en train de devenir un outil de laboratoire a part entiere. L’introduction d’interfaces graphiques, rendant l’utilisation des codes de calcul plus conviviale, ne peut a elle seule expliquer son fabuleux essor de ces dernieres annees. Des ordinateurs de plus en plus puissants et des modeles de plus en plus raffines collaborent a un tel developpement. La simulation moleculaire des polymeres entre parfaitement dans ce cadre. Elle tient en effet une place de plus en plus importante tant dans les grands centres industriels de recherche et de developpement que dans le secteur academique. Elle tend ainsi a diminuer les essais-erreurs, fort couteux aussi bien d’un point de vue financier que d’un point de vue temporel. Elle doit toutefois etre utilisee conjointement avec les outils de laboratoire plus classiques, que ce soient les techniques experimentales ou la theorie. En ce sens, elle ne cherche pas a fournir, a elle seule, la molecule « miracle », c’est-a-dire la molecule presentant toutes les proprietes desirees, ni a devoiler tous les mysteres physiques associes a une propriete macroscopique. Sa finalite reste la prediction de proprietes physiques. Elle doit donc etre utilisee comme guide a la synthese de nouveaux composes et revelatrice de comportements moleculaires generant les proprietes macroscopiques grâce auxquels des mesures experimentales pourront etre entreprises. Elle est donc assujettie a une utilisation appropriee des methodes et des modeles. Afin de montrer les tenants et les aboutissants de la modelisation moleculaire des polymeres, cet article en presente tout d’abord les principes de base. Compte tenu du nombre tres eleve d’atomes a considerer, les methodes empiriques que sont la mecanique et la dynamique moleculaires sont les methodes de choix lors d’une simulation moleculaire impliquant des polymeres. Elles sont basees sur l’utilisation d’un champ de forces. Puis, la modelisation moleculaire de polymeres lineaires est abordee dans le cas general. Enfin, les manieres les plus courantes de modeliser la phase amorphe des polymeres et la maniere d’analyser les resultats de simulation moleculaire impliquant des polymeres, ainsi que quelques exemples d’applications de cette nouvelle technique de laboratoire terminent cet expose.
Crystal Structure of Clostridium botulinum Whole Hemagglutinin Reveals a Huge Triskelion-shaped Molecular Complex*

Background: Botulinum HA is a component of the botulinum neurotoxin complex and dramatically increases the oral toxicity of the complex. Results: The crystal structure of botulinum HA reveals that 12 subcomponents of HA constitute a huge triskelion-shaped molecule. Conclusion: The complex is functionally and structurally separable into two parts. Significance: This is the first crystal structure of the whole botulinum HA complex. Clostridium botulinum HA is a component of the large botulinum neurotoxin complex and is critical for its oral toxicity. HA plays multiple roles in toxin penetration in the gastrointestinal tract, including protection from the digestive environment, binding to the intestinal mucosal surface, and disruption of the epithelial barrier. At least two properties of HA contribute to these roles: the sugar-binding activity and the barrier-disrupting activity that depends on E-cadherin binding of HA. HA consists of three different proteins, HA1, HA2, and HA3, whose structures have been partially solved and are made up mainly of β-strands. Here, we demonstrate structural and functional reconstitution of whole HA and present the complete structure of HA of serotype B determined by x-ray crystallography at 3.5 Å resolution. This structure reveals whole HA to be a huge triskelion-shaped molecule. Our results suggest that whole HA is functionally and structurally separable into two parts: HA1, involved in recognition of cell-surface carbohydrates, and HA2-HA3, involved in paracellular barrier disruption by E-cadherin binding.
Stable Isotope Probing with 15N2 Reveals Novel Noncultivated Diazotrophs in Soil

ABSTRACT Biological nitrogen fixation is a fundamental component of the nitrogen cycle and is the dominant natural process through which fixed nitrogen is made available to the biosphere. While the process of nitrogen fixation has been studied extensively with a limited set of cultivated isolates, examinations of nifH gene diversity in natural systems reveal the existence of a wide range of noncultivated diazotrophs. These noncultivated diazotrophs remain uncharacterized, as do their contributions to nitrogen fixation in natural systems. We have employed a novel 15N2-DNA stable isotope probing (5N2-DNA-SIP) method to identify free-living diazotrophs in soil that are responsible for nitrogen fixation in situ. Analyses of 16S rRNA genes from 15N-labeled DNA provide evidence for nitrogen fixation by three microbial groups, one of which belongs to the Rhizobiales while the other two represent deeply divergent lineages of noncultivated bacteria within the Betaproteobacteria and Actinobacteria, respectively. Analysis of nifH genes from 15N-labeled DNA also revealed three microbial groups, one of which was associated with Alphaproteobacteria while the others were associated with two noncultivated groups that are deeply divergent within nifH cluster I. These results reveal that noncultivated free-living diazotrophs can mediate nitrogen fixation in soils and that 15N2-DNA-SIP can be used to gain access to DNA from these organisms. In addition, this research provides the first evidence for nitrogen fixation by Actinobacteria outside of the order Actinomycetales.
Integracao de Ferramentas de Telemetria e Sistemas de TMS para Gestao Operacional do Transporte Rodoviario de Cargas (TRC)

Apesar da sua importância na matriz de transportes Brasileira, o Transporte Rodoviario e gerador de um grande prejuizo ao pais, devido ao elevado numero de sinistros que ocasionam perda de eficiencia logistica e aumento dos custos operacionais impactando negativamente na competitividade dos nossos produtos. Este artigo tem como foco apresentar uma metodologia de estudo alicercada na utilizacao de ferramentas de EDR, (Event Data Recorder) integradas a ferramentas de TMS (Transport Management System) e sistemas de telemetria como possiveis meios auxiliares na: reducao dos custos logisticos ligados ao transporte, mitigacao de riscos de sinistros e desenvolvimento de analise e capacitacao dos condutores das empresas de transporte rodoviario.
Integración de microsensores y estructuras microfluídicas para la medida de parámetros químicos en sistemas biológicos

El objetivo de esta tesis es resolver algunos aspectos cientificos-tecnicos de los LOC relacionados con la integracion de sensores de estado solido. Para conseguirlo se presenta el desarrollo de una tecnologia que permite la integracion de chips fabricados con tecnologia microelectronica y estructuras microfluidicas en sustratos polimericos. Este manuscrito se divide en 6 capitulos. En el Capitulo 1 se realiza una introduccion general de los principales elementos involucrados en el desarrollo de esta tecnologia de integracion, que son los sensores fabricados con tecnologia microelectronica, las estructuras microfluidicas, y las tecnologias de integracion existentes. Un analisis del estado del arte de las principales aplicaciones de los sistemas LOC en la literatura, nos ha llevado a dirigir la aplicacion de los dispositivos fabricados hacia la medida de parametros quimicos para aplicaciones biologicas. En el Capitulo 2 se definen los objetivos y motivaciones que han llevado al trabajo de investigacion de esta tesis. En el Capitulo 3 se presenta la fabricacion y caracterizacion de una serie de microsensores para su aplicacion en cultivos celulares y en la medida de fluidos biologicos. Estos sensores son transistores de efecto de campo sensibles a iones (ISFET), sensores amperometricos y sensores impedimetricos o electrodos interdigitados (IDE), para la medida de pH, ion potasio, oxigeno disuelto, glucosa y conductividad del medio, respectivamente. En el Capitulo 4 se expone el desarrollo de una tecnologia que permite la integracion de estos sensores en plataformas comerciales tipo PCB (printed circuit board) con sencillas estructuras microfluidicas fabricadas en PDMS. En el Capitulo 5 se demuestra la flexibilidad de la tecnologia desarrollada mediante la fabricacion de tres dispositivos de sistemas LOC, para su aplicacion en la medida del pH extracelular de cultivos celulares y en el control del pH de la orina en la enfermedad de litiasis. En el Capitulo 6 se resume el trabajo futuro a realizar para optimizar la tecnologia de integracion desarrollada y seguir avanzando hacia la fabricacion de sistemas LOC viables para su aplicacion en sectores de interes industrial.
The Role of Cognitive Impairment and Caregiver Support in Diabetes Management of Older Outpatients

Objectives: To examine the role of cognitive impairment and caregiver support in diabetes care adherence and glycemic control. Methods: Fifty-one veteran male outpatients (27 with caregivers) aged 60 years and older with type 2 diabetes were evaluated for cognitive impairment with the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument. Patients or caregivers completed diabetes self-care and depression scales. Medical morbidity information and HbA1c plasma levels at baseline and 1 year later were obtained from electronic medical records. Results: Greater cognitive impairment (F = 5.1, p < .05), and presence of a caregiver (F = 5.3, p < .05), were independently associated with worse diabetes care adherence (adjusting for age, education, medical comorbidity, and depression). In addition, Mean HbA1c levels were worse in the cognitively impaired group with caregivers relative to the three other groups (F = 4.10, p < .05, η2 =.09). One year later, mean HbA1c levels rose from 7.7 to 8.2% in the cognitively impaired group with caregivers. Conclusion: Cognitive impairment is associated with worse diabetes care management. Surprisingly, the presence of a caregiver is not protective. Further research is necessary to examine the healthcare needs of cognitively impaired, diabetic patients and their caregivers.
EPRI research plan for advanced distribution automation

Advanced distribution automation (ADA) is a revolutionary approach to managing and controlling distribution systems. It achieves a fully controllable and automated distribution system including the integration of distributed resources to optimize system performance. This paper describes the results of an EPRI roadmap development project to define the important research and development needs to achieve the completely automated distribution system of the future.
Sudden cardiac death due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy can be reduced by pre-participation cardiovascular screening in young athletes.

Sudden death of a young well-trained athlete has a high impact on everyone involved and raises concern in the medical community. It is hardly acceptable that a ‘healthy’ individual dies suddenly during athletic activity. And the question that always arises is whether this athlete could have been identified by pre-participation cardiovascular screening and this sudden cardiac death could have been prevented. The first documented ‘marathon runner’ dying suddenly within an hour after physical exertion while announcing the Greek victory (‘Nike’) over the Persians was Pheidippides in 490 BC. More recently, the death of well-trained athletes has focused interest on pre-participation cardiovascular screening. The European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (EACPR) Section Sports Cardiology of the European Society of Cardiology proposed an ‘European protocol’ for pre-participation cardiovascular screening to prevent sudden cardiac death in young athletes, which is supported by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). 1,2 In this common ‘European protocol’, pre-participation cardiovascular screening is performed every year or every other year according to the Italian strategy consisting of personal and family history, physical examination, and 12-lead resting ECG. The EACPR Section Sports Cardiology has started to implement this protocol in European countries. Also the FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) performed pre-participation cardiovascular screening in all soccer players participating at the world championship in Germany 2006.3 Sudden cardiac death … **Corresponding author. Tel: +31 26 48 34 440; fax: +31 26 36 37 649. E-mail address : nicole.panhuyzen{at}planet.nl
Analysis and improvement of the EFCI algorithm

ATM networks oriented connections provide pure QoS (quality of service) for diversified services through a series of traffic management mechanisms, the ABR (available bit rate) flow control is especially important among these approaches. In the binary flow control scheme, the cell rate and queue length may oscillate with great magnitude to reduce link utilization, so that the EFCI (explicit forward congestion indication) algorithm is regard as ineffective, however its simplicity is attractive to high performance switch design. In this paper, the EFCI algorithm is analyzed based on classical control theory. It is found that the nonlinear hysteresis determines the congestion, and is the dominant reason that causes the oscillation. Then, a probability congestion detection approach, called p-EFCI is put forward. Numerical results show that the improved algorithm deeply constrains the oscillation magnitude, and the queue length is controlled in limited scope to guarantee cell zero loss.