Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Stiffness in Extracellular Matrix Embedded with Bio-Conjugated Magnetic Beads in a Magnetic Field

In this paper we present a new model for determining the local stiffness of an extracellular matrix (ECM) sample embedded with bio-conjugated magnetic beads under the influence of an external magnetic field. In this model, the viscoelastic deformation of such ECM samples is analyzed using the finite element method. We report results from numerical simulations using our model on two typical scenarios for studying the pre-tension in the ECM caused by beads under a magnetic field. The analytical results are in close agreement with that obtained from COMSOL. We also applied our model on an actual ECM sample embedded with bio-conjugated beads and compared our analytical results with that obtained from stretch tests done on that sample. These results are comparable to that from the stretching tests. In this paper, we present a finite-element model for determining the local stiffness of an ECM sample embedded with bio-conjugated beads under the influence of an external magnetic field. Section II discusses the modification of ECM for manipulating the stiffness of ECM. Section III describes our finite-element method for analyzing viscoelastic deformation of ECM gel embedded with bio-conjugated beads, while Section IV discusses the calculation of magnetic force induced on the beads in the magnetic field generated by a permanent magnet. In Section V we apply this finite-element model to simulate the pre-tension generated in ECM by (i) a single bead, and (ii) two columns of aligned beads, and compare the results to that obtained using COMSOL. We also apply our finite-element model to an ECM sample with randomly distributed beads, and compare the analytical results (in terms of the percentage change in ECM stiffness) with experimental results obtained from a stretch test done on an actual ECM sample. Simulations are also conducted to reveal the influence of the size and concentration of beads on the change in ECM stiffness. We discuss possible improvements for this proposed model in Section VI.
Research Paper No . 2006 / 56 Pro-Poor Growth : The Asian Experience Nanak Kakwani and

This paper looks into the interrelation between economic growth, inequality, and poverty. Using the notion of pro-poor growth, this study examines to what extent the poor benefit from economic growth. First, various approaches to defining and measuring pro-poor growth are scrutinized using a variety of criteria. It is argued that the satisfaction of a monotonicity axiom is a key criterion for measuring pro-poor growth. The monotonicity axiom sets out a condition that the proportional reduction in poverty is monotonically an increasing function of the pro-poor growth measure. This paper proposes a pro-poor growth measure that satisfies the monotonicity criterion. This measure is called the ‘poverty equivalent growth rate’, which takes into account both the magnitude of growth and how the benefits of the growth are distributed to the poor and the non-poor. As the new measure satisfies the criterion of monotonicity, it is indicative that to achieve a rapid poverty reduction, the poverty equivalent growth rate ought to be maximized rather than the actual growth rate. The methodology developed in the paper is then applied to Asian countries, including the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Structure of synthetic monoclinic Na-rich birnessite and hexagonal birnessite: II. Results from chemical studies and EXAFS spectroscopy

Ansrnacr Solution chemical techniques were used to study the conversion of synthetic Na-rich buserite (NaBu) to hexagonal (Hr-exchanged) birnessite (HBi) at low pH. The low-pH reaction is broadly characterized by the exchange of structural Na* with solution H* and the partial loss of Mn2" to the aqueous phase. The desorplion of Na* in two temporally distinct steps indicates the existence of two types of binding sites for this cation. Mnrl appears to originate from a partial disproportionation of Mn3* in the NaBu layers, according to the sequence Mni"]". + Mnl,]. , -+ Mnflj". + Mnfll", -+ Mnflj. , + Vacancy + Mniq*. EXAFS measurements on Na-rich birnessite (NaBi) show that this mineral is primarily a layered structure formed by edge-sharing MnOu octahedra, with no evidence for triplecorner (TC) sharing Mn. HBi is significantly different with strong evidence for TC-sharing Mn and therefore layer vacancies. The relative numbers of edge (E)-sharing and TC-sharing neighbors determined from EXAFS measurements on HBi is consistent with SAED results (Drits et al. L997), which suggest that the layer vacancies are restricted to every third row of Mn cations, with 50Vo of the Mn sites along these rows vacant. The density of vacancies in the entire layer is therefore one in six of layer Mn sites. Polarized EXAFS measurements on orientated films of NaBi and HBi confirm the absence of TC-sharing Mn in NaBi and indicate that Mn adsorbed at layer vacancy sites in HBi at pH a ii dominantly Mn3*. The intensity of the TC-sharing contribution to the Mn EXAFS spectra of HBi samples increases with increasing pH from pH 2 to 5, and supports a mechanism of formation involving both the direct migration of layer Mn3* to interlayer TC-sharing positions and re-adsorption of Mnz* from solution onto layer vacancy sites. The migration of Mn3* cations into the interlayer releases the steric strain associated with the Jahn-Teller distortion of these octahedra. This model of the NaBu-to-HBi conversion explains the transformation from orthogonal to hexagonal layer symmetry, respectively, as reported by Drits et al. (1997). Analysis of the Zn EXAFS spectrum of Znz* -exchanged birnessite shows that Zn2* also occupies TC-sharing positions at layer vacancy sites. The results of this study strongly suggest that lattice cation vacancies are of critical importance in adsorption and electron transfer processes occurring at the surface of this mineral.
Comparison Tea Extract , 8-Hydroxy Quinoline Sulfate and Rifampicin on the Vase Life of Cut Chrysanthemum ( Denderanthema grandiflorum L . cv

Maintaining quality and longevity of cut flowers is one of the critical issues in the floriculture industry, especially in cut flowers; and one of the most important problems in chrysanthemum, as one of the most popular cut flowers. Therefore, an experiment was conducted based on completely randomized design as pulse treatment with the three factors: tea extracts with 4 levels (5, 10, 20, and 40 %), 8-hydroxy quinoline sulfate with 4 levels (100, 200, and 400 mg l), and rifampicin with 3 levels (100, 200, and 400 mg l) on spray chrysanthemum (cv. Purple) with three replications. According to the results, the 20% tea extract treatment and 100 mg l 8-hydroxy quinoline sulfate treatment showed the highest vase life, petal protein, total chlorophyll, water absorption, and petal carotenoid.
Gestão do conhecimento organizacional na administração pública federal em Brasília: um estudo exploratório

The main aim of this study was to check the understanding about the concept and application of knowledge management for the federal public administration in Brasilia, where investigated the sample of federal public organizations that have headquarters in this city and which work with knowledge management, in a moment which the posture and values of public organizations are strongly changed joined up to the economic and social Brazilian environment changes. In accordance with this purpose, a theoretical framework integrating Information Science, Brazilian public administration, and knowledge management theories was searched, since all the theoretical framework that holds up the knowledge management is based on the Information Science theories. The interview was the used technique. Starting from the collected data, this research analyzed the aspects related to the perception of the interviewed managers about the concept and application of knowledge management in their organizations, proving the strategic, human, and technological actions of this practice, as well as the difficulties and benefits arising from it. The results showed that knowledge management, in agreement with the interviewed public manager´s opinion, is not, as concept, a new idea, but is a new process, of which aim in the human cognition area is inserted, just start to be depth discussed for this administration area in this beginning of the XXI century. The results also showed that the analyzed organizations of the public area have considerables investments in technology. However, they showed that investments in human resources, the essence of knowledge management process, are still necessary.
iShake : The Reliability of Phones as Seismic Sensors

Emergency responders must “see” the effects of an earthquake clearly and rapidly for effective response. The iShake project is a novel use of smartphone and information technology to measure ground motion intensity parameters. The phone sensor, however, is an imperfect device. Hence, shaking table tests were performed to evaluate their reliability as seismic monitoring instruments. The iPhone and iPod Touch devices, either rigidly connected to the table or free to move, measured shaking intensity parameters well. Bias in spectral accelerations measured by phones was less than 0.05 and 0.2 log(g) in frequencies ranging from 1 to 10 Hz during 1-D and 3D shaking table tests, respectively. They did tend to overestimate the Arias Intensity, but this error declined for stronger motions with larger signal to noise ratios. With these ubiquitous measurement devices, a more accurate and rapid portrayal of the damage distribution during an earthquake can be provided.
Bacterial species pluralism in the light of medicine and endosymbiosis

This paper aims to offer a new argument in defence bacterial species pluralism. To do so, I shall first present the particular issues derived from the conflict between the non-theoretical understanding of species as units of classification and the theoretical comprehension of them as units of evolution. Secondly, I shall justify the necessity of the concept of species for the bacterial world, and show how medicine and endosymbiotic evolutionary theory make use of different concepts of bacterial species due to their distinctive purposes. Finally, I shall show how my argument provides a new source of defence for bacterial pluralism.
Matching ecohydrological processes and scales of banded vegetation patterns in semiarid catchments

While the claim that water‐carbon interactions result in spatially coherent vegetation patterning is rarely disputed in many arid and semiarid regions, the significance of the detailed water pathways and other high frequency variability remain an open question. How the short temporal scale meteorological fluctuations form the long‐term spatial variability of available soil water in complex terrains due to the various hydrological, land surface, and vegetation dynamic feedbacks frames the scope of the work here. Knowledge of the detailed mechanistic feedbacks among soil, plants, and the atmosphere will lead to advances in our understanding of plant water availability in arid and semiarid ecosystems and will provide insights for future model development concerning vegetation pattern formation. In this study, quantitative estimates of water fluxes and vegetation productivity are provided for a semiarid ecosystem with established vegetation bands on hillslopes using numerical simulations. A state‐of‐the‐science process based ecohydrological model is used, which resolves hydrological and plant physiological processes at the relevant space and time scales, for relatively small periods (e.g., decades) of mature ecosystems (i.e., spatially static vegetation distribution). To unfold the mechanisms that shape the spatial distribution of soil moisture, plant productivity and the relevant surface/subsurface and atmospheric water fluxes, idealized hillslope numerical experiments are constructed, where the effects of soil type, slope steepness, and overland flow accumulation area are quantified. Those mechanisms are also simulated in the presence of complex topography features on landscapes. The main results are (a) short temporal scale meteorological variability and accurate representation of the scales at which each ecohydrological process operates are crucial for the estimation of the spatial variability of soil water availability to the plant root zone; (b) water fluxes such as evapotranspiration, infiltration, runoff‐run‐on, and subsurface soil water movement have a dynamic short temporal scale behavior that determines the long‐term spatial organization of plant soil water availability in ecosystems with established vegetation patterns; and (c) hypotheses concerning the hydrological responses that can lead to vegetation pattern formation have to accommodate realistic and physically based representations of the fast dynamics of key ecohydrological fluxes.
A Novel Non-Intrusive Technique for BTI Characterization in SiC mosfets

Threshold voltage (<italic>V</italic><sub>TH</sub>) shift due to bias temperature instability (BTI) is a well-known problem in SiC <sc>mosfet</sc>s that occurs due to oxide traps in the SiC/SiO<sub>2</sub> gate interface. The reduced band offsets and increased interface/fixed oxide traps in SiC <sc>mosfet</sc>s makes this a more critical problem compared to silicon. Before qualification, power devices are subjected to gate bias stress tests after which <italic>V</italic><sub>TH</sub> shift is monitored. However, some recovery occurs between the end of the stress and <italic>V</italic><sub>TH</sub> characterization, thereby potentially underestimating the extent of the problem. In applications where the SiC <sc>mosfet</sc> module is turned <sc>off</sc> with a negative bias at high temperature, if the <italic>V</italic><sub>TH</sub> shift is severe enough, there may be electrothermal failure due to current crowding since parallel devices lose synchronization during turn-<sc>on</sc>. In this paper, a novel method that uses the forward voltage of the body diode during reverse conduction of a small sensing current is introduced as a technique for monitoring <italic>V</italic><sub>TH</sub> shift and recovery due to BTI. This non-invasive method exploits the increased body effect that is peculiar to SiC <sc>mosfet</sc>s due to the higher body diode forward voltage. With the proposed method, it is possible to non-invasively assess <italic>V</italic><sub>TH</sub> shift dynamically during BTI characterization tests.
Moderate deviations and associated Laplace approximations for sums of independent random vectors

Let {Xj} be an i.i. d. sequence of Banach space valued r.v. 's and let Sn = Z, 1 Xj . For certain positive sequences bn oo, we determine the exact asymptotic behavior of E exp{(b2/n)D(Sn/bn)}, where D is a smooth function. We also prove a large deviation principle for {2Y(Sn/bn)} .
Digital watermarking by DCT coefficient manipulation

The advent of digital multimedia and worldwide area networks such as the Internet facilitates efficient distribution, reproduction and manipulation over networked information systems. To discourage the unauthorized copying and distributing of electronic documents, new tools are needed for their tracking and copyright enforcement. Digital watermark, which is an invisible mark embedded in a digital medium, for example a serial number or copyright information and can be retrieved even after attacks such as image processing and lossy compression, is one of the most promising ways for this purpose. This thesis is concerned with analyzing and developing several digital watermarking schemes based on manipulating DCT coefficients of images. In the first scheme, a variant of the watermarking scheme proposed by Langelaar, et al. for JPEG/MPEG streams is implemented based on selectively discarding high frequency DCT coefficients. The watermark bits can be recovered by comparing the high frequency energy in difference DCT blocks. The second scheme embeds a watermark into the DCT coefficients of an image during the process of quantization; by introducing a self-reference pattern, the robustness of an watermark can be improved. In the third scheme, pairs of mid-frequency DCT coefficients are selected and modified to embed a watermark. The last scheme is built on the foundation of spread-spectrum communication. After presenting a generic spread spectrum based watermarking scheme, we derive the expectation and variance of the correlation between the investigated image and the watermark, from which the performance of our spread spectrum watermarking algorithm is analyzed and is found to be consistent with the experiment results. The watermarking schemes can detect the embedded watermarks in the DCT domain without the help from the original images. Experiment results
The Role of Histidine Residues in the pHi Sensitivity of the Na+JH+ Exchanger

Na+/H+ exchanger (NHE) is a major contributor in controlling intracellular pH. The activity of this protein is allosterically modified by intracellular H+. Histidine residues of the NHE that face the cytoplasm may be involved in determining the intracellular pH set point, with their state of protonation influencing the rate of Na +/H+ exchange. To test this hypothesis, histidine residues in the ubiquitously expressed NHE isoform (NHE1) that are relatively conserved amongst members of the NHE gene family were substituted by site-directed mutagenesis and the mutants were stably transfected into mammalian cells that are deficient in endogenous Na+/H + exchange activity. The pHi sensitivity of each mutant was evaluated by measuring the rate of 22Na + influx as a function of the intracellular H+ concentration. Mutation of the histidines located at the putative cytoplasmic face of the N-terminal transmembraneous domain of NHE1 did not show any significant effect on the pHi sensitivity of the protein. By contrast, substitution of histidines located in the C-terminal cytoplasmic tail activated the exchanger by increasing its sensitivity to H+. These mutants were no longer activated in response to protein kinase C, when compared to wild type. Taken together, these data support the hypothesis that some of the relatively conserved histidine residues in the C-terminal cytoplasmic tail of NHE1 may be involved in determining the pHi "threshold" or "set point" of the transporter.
a-2 , 3 Sialylation Differentiate the Linibal and Corneal Epithelial Cell Phenotypes

Purpose. The initial differentiation event for the corneal epithelial cell lineage occurs as the limbally localized stem cells yield, through mitosis, the highly proliferative, transiently amplifying corneal peripheral cells. This differentiation is characterized by the expression of tissue-specific cytokeratins, as well as the loss of a-enolase and pigmentation. All these are intracellular events. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize, through lectin analysis, changes in cell surface properties associated with differentiation.
Towards confirmatory data analysis? Deriving and analysing routing information for an origin-destination bike share dataset

Data collected from urban bike share schemes allow observed travel behaviours to be analysed on a uniquely large scale. Exploring such timed origin-destination (OD) data from the London Cycle Hire Scheme (LCHS), we previously generated detailed insights into spatiotemporal patterns of travel and suggested new hypotheses for their motivation. A limitation was that with only the origins and destinations of cycle journeys, little was known about the nature and context of likely cycled routes. In this study, we use the CycleStreets routing engine to derive routing information for every OD pair made through the LCHS. From these suggested routes, we collect heuristics for the nature of each journey. Information on the number of signalled junctions encountered, on any bridges crossed, as well as a proxy for the busyness of suggested routes is recorded. We then analyse over 5 million journeys made by LCHS members during a 12-month period (September 2011 – September 2012). Focussing on LCHS journeys that involve crossing the River Thames, we observe differences in male and female cyclists’ apparent use of bridges, which appear to be strongly related to a commuting function. Studying heuristics of suggested routes over these bridges, we find some evidence to suggest that women may be underrepresented amongst commuting journeys that involve a river crossing because those very journeys are associated with relatively busy and demanding routes. We also find evidence that the nature of frequently cycled journeys involving a river crossing might explain imbalances in the direction of journeys made over the river when we select periods of more discretionary activity – when studying weekend journeys. These findings are nevertheless quite speculative. A number of confounders cannot be easily accounted for within this analysis: the economic geography of the city, spatial interactions between docking stations at particular space-times and the relative availability of transport alternatives. Perhaps most importantly, our analysis assumes that routes suggested by the routing algorithm closely reflect individuals’ actually cycled routes.
Universal speeded-up adiabatic geometric quantum computation in three-level systems via counterdiabatic driving

Universal speeded-up adiabatic geometric quantum computation is studied in a system with different coupling cases including time-dependent detuning, large detuning, and one-photon resonance couplings. The counterdiabatic driving method is used to speed up the universal quantum computation. These schemes are feasible in experiment because additional unaccessible ground-state coupling is not needed. Only the shapes and phases of the reference adiabatic classical-field pulse are modified with the aid of effective two-level systems. The speed and robustness against system decay and control errors are discussed, and the performance of the scheme is compared for different coupling cases.
New insights in the origin and evolution of the old, metal-rich open cluster NGC 6791

NGC 6791 is one of the most studied open clusters, it is massive (∼5000 M⊙), located at the solar circle, old (∼8 Gyr) and yet the most metal-rich cluster ([Fe/H] ≃ 0.4) known in the Milky Way. By performing an orbital analysis within a Galactic model including spiral arms and a bar, we found that it is plausible that NGC 6791 formed in the inner thin disc or in the bulge, and later displaced by radial migration to its current orbit. We apply different tools to simulate NGC 6791, including direct N-body summation in time-varying potentials, to test its survivability when going through different Galactic environments. In order to survive the 8 Gyr journey moving on a migrating orbit, NGC 6791 must have been more massive, M0 ≥ 5 × 104M⊙, when formed. We find independent confirmation of this initial mass in the stellar mass function, which is observed to be flat; this can only be explained if the average tidal field strength experienced by the cluster is stronger than what it is at its current orbit. Therefore, the birth place and journeys of NGC 6791 are imprinted in its chemical composition, in its mass loss, and in its flat stellar mass function, supporting its origin in the inner thin disc or in the bulge.