Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nanometer thickness laser ablation for spatial control of cell attachment

We demonstrate here a new method to control the location of cells on surfaces in two dimensions, which can be applied to a number of biomedical applications including diagnostic tests and tissue engineered medical devices. Two-dimensional control over cell attachment is achieved by generation of a spatially controlled surface chemistry that allows control over protein adsorption, a process which mediates cell attachment. Here, we describe the deposition of thin allylamine plasma polymer coatings on silicon wafer and perfluorinated poly(ethylene-co-propylene) substrates, followed by grafting of a protein resistant layer of poly(ethylene oxide). Spatially controlled patterning of the surface chemistry was achieved in a fast, one-step procedure by nanometer thickness controlled laser ablation using a 248 nm excimer laser. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy were used to confirm the production of surface chemistry patterns with a resolution of approximately 1 µm, which is significantly below the dimensions of a single mammalian cell. Subsequent adsorption of the extracellular matrix proteins collagen I and fibronectin followed by cell culture experiments using bovine corneal epithelial cells confirmed that cell attachment is controlled by the surface chemistry pattern. The method is an effective tool for use in a number of in vitro and in vivo applications.
Zero-determinant strategy: An underway revolution in game theory

Repeated games describe situations where players interact with each other in a dynamic pattern and make decisions according to outcomes of previous stage games. Very recently, Press and Dyson have revealed a new class of zero-determinant (ZD) strategies for the repeated games, which can enforce a fixed linear relationship between expected payoffs of two players, indicating that a smart player can control her unwitting co-player's payoff in a unilateral way [Proc. Acad. Natl. Sci. USA 109, 10409 (2012)]. The theory of ZD strategies provides a novel viewpoint to depict interactions among players, and fundamentally changes the research paradigm of game theory. In this brief survey, we first introduce the mathematical framework of ZD strategies, and review the properties and constrains of two specifications of ZD strategies, called pinning strategies and extortion strategies. Then we review some representative research progresses, including robustness analysis, cooperative ZD strategy analysis, and evolutionary stability analysis. Finally, we discuss some significant extensions to ZD strategies, including the multi-player ZD strategies, and ZD strategies under noise. Challenges in related research fields are also listed.
Intermediate sp-hybridization for chemical bonds in nonplanar covalent molecules of carbon

General representations for symmetrical and asymmetrical intermediate sp-hybridization are provided, with which the development of electronic structure in C3v-symmetrical C2H6 and the bonding configuration in C60 have been analyzed as an example. The spherical structure of C60 does not necessarily require the fourth hybrid, h4, to lie along the radial direction. Rather, h4 runs at an angle of 3.83° from the radius, in the plane bisecting a pentagon, to achieve maximum overlap with adjacent h4-hybrids. By virtue of these representations, a number of properties of covalent molecules and solids can be conveniently calculated. This work might be particularly helpful for the study of C—C bonding in curved structures of carbon, such as fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and buckled graphene.
The advantage of blue InGaN multiple quantum wells light-emitting diodes with p-AlInN electron blocking layer

InGaN based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with different electron blocking layers have been numerically investigated using the APSYS simulation software. It is found that the structure with a p-AlInN electron blocking layer showes improved light output power, lower current leakage, and smaller efficiency droop. Based on numerical simulation and analysis, these improvements of the electrical and optical characteristics are mainly attributed to the efficient electron blocking in the InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs).
On the origin of IceCube's PeV neutrinos

The IceCube collaboration has recently reported the observation of two events with energies in excess of 1 PeV. While an atmospheric origin of these events cannot be ruled out at this time, this pair of showers may potentially represent the first observation of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. In this paper, we argue that if these events are neutrino-induced, then the neutrinos are very likely to have been produced via photo-meson interactions taking place in the same class of astrophysical objects that are responsible for the acceleration of the ∼ 1017 eV cosmic ray spectrum. Among the proposed sources of such cosmic rays, gamma-ray bursts stand out as particularly capable of generating PeV neutrinos at the level implied by IceCube's two events. In contrast, the radiation fields in typical active galactic nuclei models are likely dominated by lower energy (UV) photons, and thus feature higher energy thresholds for pion production, leading to neutrino spectra which peak at EeV rather than PeV energies (models with significant densities of x-ray emission, however, could evade this problem). Cosmogenic neutrinos generated from the propagation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays similarly peak at energies that are much higher than those of the events reported by IceCube.
Effect of SiO2 and SiC doping on the powder-in-tube processed MgB2 tapes

Effect of SiO2 and SiC nano-powder doping was investigated for the powder-in-tube processed MgB2/Fe tapes. Mg or MgH2 powder was used as the Mg source of starting materials, and heat treatment was carried out at 600 °C for 1 h. These heat treatment conditions of lower temperature and shorter heating time are advantageous from the aspect of practical production processes. MgH2 powder improved the connection of MgB2 grains and prevented oxidation of MgB2. SiC and SiO2 doping greatly enhanced the critical current density (JC) values of the tapes prepared with Mg + B powder. However, only the SiC doping was effective in enhancing JC values for MgH2 + B powder. SiC doping decreased magnetic field sensitivity of JC, while SiO2 doping did not change the field dependence of JC. The SiC doped tape showed transport JC value of about 6 500 A cm−2 at 4.2 K and in the magnetic field of 12 T. The irreversibility field increased from 17 T to 23 T by the SiC doping.
Nonlinear dynamics of optical pulses in fibres with a travelling refractive-index-change wave

Dynamics of soliton-like wave packets in fibres with a travelling refractive-index-change wave is studied. It is shown that both a soliton-like propagation regime of a pulse and a self-compression regime in the region of normal group velocity dispersion are possible. It is also shown that in the case of a copropagating or counterpropagating pulse and optically inhomogeneous wave nonreciprocal effects appear.
Superconducting fluctuation magnetoconductance in a tungsten carbide film

Magnetoconductance (MC) measurements have been performed on a 2140 Å thick tungsten carbide film at temperatures very close to the superconducting transition temperature Tc of the film. The data are dominated by superconducting fluctuations. A novel three-dimensional phenomenological model is proposed to explain the MC data, yielding good fits. The Larkin beta factor, βLarkin, appeared as a fitting parameter. An expression proposed by Larkin for βLarkin failed badly for temperatures extremely close to Tc. But at intermediate and high temperatures compared to Tc, Larkin's expression gave very good agreement in fits to the MC data. At temperatures very close to Tc, a crossover from three dimensions to two dimensions was observed in the behaviour of the MC of the film.
Alopecia areata universalis und ausgedehnte Mollusca contagiosa bei atopischer Dermatitis: wieder einsetzendes Haarwachstum unter Behandlung mit Interferon gamma ‐ echter Therapieeffekt oder Koinzidenz?

A 35-year-old woman presented with severe recalcitrant atopic dermatitis, in association with disseminated mollusca contagiosa and alopecia areata universalis. After several weeks of systemic interferon gamma, which was administered subcutaneously, the viral infection cleared and, surprisingly, four weeks after starting treatment hair re-growth was observed. Complete remission of alopecia areata was documented few weeks later and persists. After four cycles of high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin, a sustained remission of the atopic dermatitis was achieved.
The Grey Forecasting Model for the Medium-and Long-Term Load Forecasting

Load forecasting is an important part of system planning. In this paper, the medium - and long-term load forecasting method is studied, and the grey prediction is selected as the prediction method. Through the establishment of the grey prediction model and the posterior difference method to test the accuracy of the model, the gray forecasting model for the medium - and long-term load forecasting is presented, and the feasibility of this method is verified by an example.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF METEOROLOGICAL FACTORS AND AIR POLLUTION AT WINTER MONTHS IN ELAZIĞ, TURKEY (doi: 10.4090/juee.2009.v3n1.007016)

In the present study, relationship between monitored air pollutant concentrations such as SO2 and the total suspended particles (TSP) data and meteorological factors such as wind speed, temperature, relative humidity and atmospheric pressure was investigated in months of October, November, December, January, February, and March during the period of three years (2003, 2004 and 2005) for Elazig city. According to the results of linear and non-linear regression analysis, it was found that there is a moderate and weak level of relation between the air pollutant concentrations and the meteorological factors in Elazig city.
Management of cornual (interstitial) pregnancy

• The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health report for 2000–02 stated that cornual pregnancy is a rare but dangerous type of ectopic pregnancy. • Four out of the 11 deaths from ruptured ectopic pregnancy were due to ruptured cornual pregnancy. In all four cases the diagnosis was made only after rupture. • Haemorrhage can be severe because pregnancy is often more developed than extrauterine tubal pregnancy and because of the large blood supply to the uterus. • Clinicians should be aware of the difficulties with both clinical and ultrasound diagnosis. • Many case reports have been written about sporadic cases of intact and ruptured cornual pregnancy and several treatment modalities discussed. There are very few publications collecting all management strategies, including both surgical and medical treatment, for this dangerous type of ectopic pregnancy.
Optimization of tumour control probability for heterogeneous tumours in fractionated radiotherapy treatment protocols

We find the dose distribution that maximizes the tumour control probability (TCP) for a fixed mean tumour dose per fraction. We consider a heterogeneous tumour volume having a radiation response characterized by the linear quadratic model with heterogeneous radiosensitivity and repopulation rate that may vary in time. Using variational calculus methods a general solution is obtained. We demonstrate the spatial dependence of the optimal dose distribution by explicitly evaluating the solution for different functional forms of the tumour properties. For homogeneous radiosensitivity and growth rate, we find that the dose distribution that maximizes TCP is homogeneous when the clonogen cell density is homogeneous, while for a heterogeneous initial tumour density we find that the first dose fraction is inhomogeneous, which homogenizes the clonogen cell density, and subsequent dose fractions are homogeneous. When the tumour properties have explicit spatial dependence, we show that the spatial variation of the optimized dose distribution is insensitive to the functional form. However, the dose distribution and tumour clonogen density are sensitive to the value of the repopulation rate. The optimized dose distribution yields a higher TCP than a typical clinical dose distribution or a homogeneous dose distribution.
Raman spectroscopy for probing chemically/physically induced phenomena in carbon nanotubes

The use of recent advances in resonance Raman spectroscopy studies on isolated carbon nanotubes and the scientific knowledge achieved so far from these studies is discussed in the context of advancing carbon nanotube-based technology. Changes in the Raman spectra can be used to probe and monitor structural modifications of the nanotube sidewalls that come from the introduction of defects and the attachment of different chemical species. The former effect can be probed through the analysis of the disorder-induced Raman modes and the latter through the upshifts/downshifts observed in the various Raman modes due to charge transfer effects.
Elastic constants of BCC binary alloys near the A3B composition and their relation to martensitic transitions

The present work deals with the analysis of the atomic-order dependence of the elastic constants of a BCC binary alloy near the A3B composition. The authors assume that each atom interacts with nearest and next-nearest neighbours through a pairwise interatomic potential. The configurational phase diagram of the system has been obtained from Monte Carlo simulation of a lattice model for such an alloy system. The DO3, B2 and A2 phases are found to be stable for appropriate values of the interaction parameters. The elastic constants of partially ordered configurations are calculated at T=0 K, after quenches from different temperatures Tq ranging over the stability regions of the three phases. The results are compared with experimental data corresponding to the Cu-Zn-Al shape memory alloy and their relevance in connection with the martensitic transformation is discussed.
Validação de álbum seriado para a promoção do controle de peso corporal infantil

Objetivo: validar el contenido y la apariencia del album seriado para ninos de 7 a 10 anos, abordando el tema prevencion y control del peso corporal. Metodo: estudio metodologico, de naturaleza descriptiva. El proceso de validez tuvo la participacion de 33 especialistas en tecnologias educativas y/o en exceso de peso infantil. Fue considerado el indice de concordancia de lo minimo 80% para garantizar la validez del material. Resultados: la mayoria de los especialistas tenia doctorado y era graduado en enfermeria. Sobre al contenido, ilustraciones, layout y relevancia, todos los items fueron validados y 69,7% de los especialistas consideraron el album como optimo. El indice de validez de concordancia global de la tecnologia educativa fue 0,88. Apenas la ficha-guia 3 no consiguio el punto de cohorte del indice de validez del contenido. Fueron realizadas alteraciones en el material, tales como: cambio del titulo, inclusion del contexto escolar e insercion de nutricionista y educador fisico en la historia narrada en el album. Conclusion: el album seriado propuesto fue considerado valido por especialistas sobre el contenido y apariencia, sugiriendo que esta tecnologia tiene potencial para contribuir en la educacion en salud sobre promocion del peso sano en el grupo de edad de 7 a 10 anos.
Secondary emission effects on streamer branching in transient non-uniform short-gap discharges

A new approach is presented for calculation of photoionization rates, in fully three-dimensional grids, that improves the accuracy of the secondary processes calculation without significantly compromising the efficiency of the numerical algorithm. The method is based on generating a coarser secondary grid and interpolating the photoionization values between the two meshes, in order to overcome the enormous effort required for calculation of photoionization in gas discharge problems. A comprehensive study of the effects of photoionization, photoemission and background ionization in a short point-plane gap in air at atmospheric pressure is then presented, by using the above approach for the secondary processes in two dimensions, in conjunction with the two-dimensional axisymmetric finite-element flux-corrected transport algorithm. The secondary processes are modelled individually within a wide range of parametric values to reflect the uncertainty in the experimental data, and their effect on streamer development and propagation is investigated. The significant reduction in time required for the calculations makes numerical modelling an essential tool for better understanding of the very important yet not well understood physical processes central to the propagation and development of streamers. Finally, numerical branching is observed under certain conditions in the absence of an adequate supply of electrons in high field regions.
Amorphous phase formation of Mo1-xGex, Mo1-xSix films and their superconducting properties

Mo1-xGex, Mo1-xSix films were prepared by getter sputtering onto liquid nitrogen cooled substrates. The amorphous phase formations were Ge > 22 at. %, Si > 18 at. % respectively. With the increase of Ge, Si content, Tc decreased from 6 to 3 K in the amorphous state. The measured results of (dBc2/dT)Tc, Jc and ρ(300K)/ρ(8K) indicated that the four chosen Mo1-xSix films exhibit fundamental characteristics of amorphous superconductors.
VITAL SIGNS MEASUREMENT: AN INDICATOR OF SAFE CARE DELIVERED TO ELDERLY PATIENTS

The study's aim was to analyze the importance assigned by the nursing staff to the recording of vital signs of elderly inpatients, as well as perceived barriers and benefits. Data were collected through interviews held with 13 nurses and the reports were analyzed using content analysis, considering the health belief model proposed by Rosenstock. The categories that emerged from the analysis indicate barriers that interfere in the proper monitoring of vital signs, namely: workload, lack of availability and accessibility of basic equipment such as thermometers, stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers, which compromises the nursing assessment and leads to a greater susceptibility to incidents. Although the facility does not provide conditions to measure vital signs properly, the nursing staff attempts to do what is feasible given their current knowledge and context to achieve the best outcome possible in view of the resources available. DESCRIPTORS: Quality of health care. Health of the elderly. Vital signs. Nursing records.
Formation and internal structure of superdense dark matter clumps and ultracompact minihaloes

We discuss the formation mechanisms and structure of the superdense dark matter clumps (SDMC) and ultracompact minihaloes (UCMH), outlining the differences between these types of DM objects. We define as SDMC the gravitationally bounded DM objects which have come into virial equilibrium at the radiation-dominated (RD) stage of the universe evolution. Such objects can be formed from the isocurvature (entropy) density perturbations or from the peaks in the spectrum of curvature (adiabatic) perturbation. The axion miniclusters (Kolb and Tkachev 1994) are the example of the former model. The system of central compact mass (e.g. in the form of SDMC or primordial black hole (PBH)) with the outer DM envelope formed in the process of secondary accretion we refer to as UCMH. Therefore, the SDMC can serve as the seed for the UCMH in some scenarios. Recently, the SDMC and UCMH were considered in the many works, and we try to systematize them here. We consider also the effect of asphericity of the initial density perturbation in the gravitational evolution, which decreases the SDMC amount and, as the result, suppresses the gamma-ray signal from DM annihilation.
Thickening of spine ligamentum flavum and facet tropism

OBJETIVO: Este estudio investigo si el engrosamiento del ligamento amarillo (LA) se correlaciona con la presencia de tropismo facetario y su gravedad en diferentes niveles de la columna vertebral. METODO: Estudio retrospectivo se realizo con pacientes con dolor de espalda cronico, ingresados consecutivamente al servicio especializado en cirugia de columna entre enero de 2012 y enero de 2013. Todos los pacientes fueron sometidos a una resonancia magnetica (MRI) para medir el espesor del LA y la gravedad de tropismo facetario (grave, moderada o ausente) segun los diversos niveles (L3-L4, L4-L5 y L5-S1). Se analizo la asociacion entre el espesor del LA y el tropismo. RESULTADOS: Durante el periodo de estudio, 98 pacientes fueron incluidos, con edad promedio de 53,6 anos, siendo la mayoria mujeres (59,2%). No hubo diferencia significativa entre los espesores de los ligamentos y la presencia de tropismo en niveles diferentes (p> 0,05). El espesor del LA se asocio significativamente con la gravedad del tropismo solo en el nivel L5-S1 (p <0,03). CONCLUSIONES: Los resultados de nuestro estudio muestran que existe una relacion positiva entre la severidad del tropismo facetario y el aumento del espesor del LA en el nivel L5-S1.
Shape changes by coupled bending and twisting of shape-memory-alloy-embedded composite beams

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) have demonstrated the potential for various smart structure applications. SMAs undergo a reversible phase transformation from martensite to austenite as temperature increases. This transformation leads to shape recovery and associated recovery strains. If SMA actuators are embedded off the neutral surface and are oriented at arbitrary angles with respect to a beam axis, then the beam bends and twists due to the coupling effects of recovery strains activated. In this study, the shape changes by bending and twisting of a SMA/graphite/epoxy beam controlled by both electric resistive heating and passive elastic tailoring were investigated. Three-dimensional finite-element formulations were derived and validated to analyze the responses of the SMA/composite beam. Numerical results show that the shape of the SMA/graphite/epoxy composite beam can be controlled by judicious choices of control temperatures, SMA angles and elastic tailoring.
Tissue characterization using magnetic resonance elastography: preliminary results*

The well-documented effectiveness of palpation as a diagnostic technique for detecting cancer and other diseases has provided motivation for developing imaging techniques for non-invasively evaluating the mechanical properties of tissue. A recently described approach for elasticity imaging, using propagating acoustic shear waves and phase-contrast MRI, has been called magnetic resonance elastography (MRE). The purpose of this work was to conduct preliminary studies to define methods for using MRE as a tool for addressing the paucity of quantitative tissue mechanical property data in the literature. Fresh animal liver and kidney tissue specimens were evaluated with MRE at multiple shear wave frequencies. The influence of specimen temperature and orientation on measurements of stiffness was studied in skeletal muscle. The results demonstrated that all of the materials tested (liver, kidney, muscle and tissue-simulating gel) exhibit systematic dependence of shear stiffness on shear rate. These data are consistent with a viscoelastic model of tissue mechanical properties, allowing calculation of two independent tissue properties from multiple-frequency MRE data: shear modulus and shear viscosity. The shear stiffness of tissue can be substantially affected by specimen temperature. The results also demonstrated evidence of shear anisotropy in skeletal muscle but not liver tissue. The measured shear stiffness in skeletal muscle was found to depend on both the direction of propagation and polarization of the shear waves.