Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Central Role of the F-Actin Surface in Myosin Force Generation

Simple Summary Although actin is a highly conserved protein, it is involved in many diverse cellular processes. Actin owes its diversity of function to its ability to bind to a host of actin-binding proteins (ABPs) that localize across its surface. Among the most studied ABPs is the molecular motor, myosin. Myosin generates force on actin filaments by pairing ATP hydrolysis, product release, and actin-binding to the conformational changes that lead to movement. Central to this process is the progression of myosin binding to the actin surface as it moves through its ATPase cycle. During binding, actin acts as a myosin ATPase activator, catalyzing essential hydrolysis release steps. Here, we use the current model of actin-myosin binding as a roadmap to describe the portions of the actin-myosin interface that are sequentially formed throughout the motor cycle. At each step, we compare the interactions of a diverse set of high-resolution actin-myosin cryo-electron microscopy structures to define what portions of the interface are conserved and which are isoform-specific. Abstract Actin is one of the most abundant and versatile proteins in eukaryotic cells. As discussed in many contributions to this Special Issue, its transition from a monomeric G-actin to a filamentous F-actin form plays a critical role in a variety of cellular processes, including control of cell shape and cell motility. Once polymerized from G-actin, F-actin forms the central core of muscle-thin filaments and acts as molecular tracks for myosin-based motor activity. The ATP-dependent cross-bridge cycle of myosin attachment and detachment drives the sliding of myosin thick filaments past thin filaments in muscle and the translocation of cargo in somatic cells. The variation in actin function is dependent on the variation in muscle and non-muscle myosin isoform behavior as well as interactions with a plethora of additional actin-binding proteins. Extensive work has been devoted to defining the kinetics of actin-based force generation powered by the ATPase activity of myosin. In addition, over the past decade, cryo-electron microscopy has revealed the atomic-evel details of the binding of myosin isoforms on the F-actin surface. Most accounts of the structural interactions between myosin and actin are described from the perspective of the myosin molecule. Here, we discuss myosin-binding to actin as viewed from the actin surface. We then describe conserved structural features of actin required for the binding of all or most myosin isoforms while also noting specific interactions unique to myosin isoforms.
Sliding-Bar MACCEPA for a Powered Ankle Prosthesis

This paper describes a new design that improves several aspects of the mechanically adjustable compliance and controllable equilibrium position actuator (MACCEPA). The proposed design avoids premature wear and attachment issues found in the cable transmission used in previous MACCEPA designs and allows the use of high-performance compact compression springs. The mechanical configuration of the actuator provides an adjustable stiffness with a nonlinear stiffening output torque. The output position of the actuator and its global stiffness are independent from each other. In this work, we provide a mathematical description of the actuation principle along with an experimental verification of its performance in a powered ankle–foot prosthesis. This work is part of the CYBERLEGs project funded by the European Commissions 7th Framework Programme.
A micro chemical analyzing system integrated on a silicon wafer

The fabrication of a three-way valve on a silicon wafer by micromachining techniques is presented. The valve consists of two silicon wafers, a pyrex glass, and a piezoelectric actuator. This three-way valve can control gas flow or liquid flow with voltage applied to the actuator. The liquid flow can be controlled from 0.1 mu l/min to 70 mu l/min. The results from integrating the three-way valve with a micropump to produce a flow injection analyzing system are discussed. <<ETX>>
Standardization of laboratory test methods to determine the cyclic deformation properties of geomaterials in Japan

Herein described is an outline of the activities of the standardization committee in the course of standardizing laboratory cyclic loading testing for deformation properties of geomaterials. Although the Japanese Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, JSSMFE, established the "Method for Cyclic Undrained Testing of Soils" for liquefaction tests on sand using cyclic triaxial test apparatus in 1991, a standard test method for deformation modulus and damping has not yet been formulated, despite the strong demand for the establishment of the standard test methods amongst engineers. As a result of three years of activities surveying existing test devices and the practical application of test results, and comprehensive examinations of current practice, JSF T 542-1994 and T 543-1994 were proposed. Some information concerning current test procedures in Japan and practical applications of test results are presented, together with the proposed standards. For the covering abstract, see IRRD 892179.
Pharmacognostic and antidysentery screening of mixed ethanol leaf extract of Parkia biglobosa and Acanthus montanus (50:50)

Introduction: Parkia biglobosa belong to the family mimosaceae and Acanthus montanus belong to the family acanthaceae. The plants both have a multipurpose use as herbal medicine. Aim: This work investigate the pharmacognostic standard and anti-dysentery activity of the mixed ethanol extract of both plants on E. histolytical induced dysentery. Method: The phytochemical, chemo microscopy and proximate analysis were carried out using the standard procedures. The mixed extract of ratio 50:50 was administered to different groups of rats at different doses. Loperamide was administered as standard drug. The change in faecal consistency was observed and recorded. Result: The phytochemical analysis shows the presence of alkaloids, tannins, proteins, glycosides and carbohydrates. Chemomicroscopy of both plants showed the presence of starch, calcium oxalate, lignin, cellulose. While the extractive value analysis gave 25.0% and 32.7% for water extractive value and ethanol extractive value respectively (for Acanthus montanus) and 23.0% and 30.0% for water extractive value and ethanol extractive value respectively (for Parkiabiglobosa). The absence of death at 5000mg/kg of the extract shows that the lethal dose of the ethanol extract of the plant mixture is higher than 5000mg/kg which may be an indication of safety of the mixture. The anti-dysentery activity of the mixture of both plants with different concentration of 250mg/kg, 500mg/kg, 1000mg/kg body weight of ethanol extract showed a significant change in the faecal consistency of the rats. The effect obtained on the administration of 500mg/kg body weight of the extract mixture is more comparable to the standard (loperamide). Conclusion: The synergistic use of the extract contains the secondary metabolites glycosides, alkaloids, flavonoids, which may be responsible for their anti-dysentery synergistic activity. Mixed extracts from both leaves of P. biglobosa and A. montanus can be recommended as an anti-dysentery agent.
Medical image segmentation with generative adversarial semi-supervised network

Recent medical image segmentation methods heavily rely on large-scale training data and high-quality annotations. However, these resources are hard to obtain due to the limitation of medical images and professional annotators. How to utilize limited annotations and maintain the performance is an essential yet challenging problem. In this paper, we try to tackle this problem in a self-learning manner by proposing a generative adversarial semi-supervised network. We use limited annotated images as main supervision signals, and the unlabeled images are manipulated as extra auxiliary information to improve the performance. More specifically, we modulate a segmentation network as a generator to produce pseudo labels for unlabeled images. To make the generator robust, we train an uncertainty discriminator with generative adversarial learning to determine the reliability of the pseudo labels. To further ensure dependability, we apply feature mapping loss to obtain statistic distribution consistency between the generated labels and the real labels. Then the verified pseudo labels are used to optimize the generator in a self-learning manner. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed method on right ventricle dataset, Sunnybrook dataset, STACOM, ISIC dataset, and Kaggle lung dataset. We obtain 0.8402–0.9121, 0.8103–0.9094, 0.9435–0.9724, 0.8635–0.886, and 0.9697–0.9885 dice coefficient with 1/8 to 1/2 proportion of densely annotated labels, respectively. The improvements are up to 28.6 points higher than the corresponding fully supervised baseline.
Implementing advanced service technology in the public sector: an exploratory study of the relevance and limitations of insights from private sector manufacturing technology implementation

This research examined (1) to what extent a conceptual model derived from research into advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) implementations offers explanatory insight for a public sector organisation implementing advanced service technology, and (2) how, if at all, the experiences of a specific public sector implementation (the implementation of digital news production at the Swedish State Broadcaster (SVT)) suggest modifications/extensions to the AMT-based conceptual model. The research generated three conclusions. First, synthesising the extant private sector AMT literature produced a concise conceptual model of the factors that underpin success: top management support; technology-organisational adaptation; and training people. Analysis suggests that this private sector, manufacturing-derived model provided strong explanatory insight for this public sector service delivery example. Second, current implementation theory underplays the role played by different types of employee. Some (specific groups (e.g., professionals) have additional power and status and in many public sector organisations they play a central role in delivering services. This inevitably means that they have a disproportionate opportunity to subvert any implementation process. Third, the maturity and specific functionality of the technological resources in the SVT case acted in combination to deliver significant public value. The article concludes with some implications for practice and suggestions for further work.
Finite element modelling and experimental characterization of an electro-thermally actuated silicon-polymer micro gripper

This paper presents simulation and experimental characterization of an electro-thermally actuated micro gripper. This micro actuator can conceptually be seen as a bi-morph structure of SU-8 and silicon, actuated by thermal expansion of the polymer. The polymer micro gripper with an embedded comb-like silicon skeleton is designed to reduce unwanted out-of-plane bending of the actuator, while offering a large gripper stroke. The temperature and displacement field of the micro gripper structure is determined using a two-dimensional finite element analysis. This analysis is compared to experimental data from steady-state and transient measurements of the integrated heater resistance, which depends on the average temperature of the actuator. The stability of the polymer actuator is evaluated by recording the transient behaviour of the actual jaw displacements. The maximum single jaw displacement of this micro gripper design is 34 µm at a driving voltage of 4 V and an average actuator temperature of 170 °C. The transient thermal response is modelled by a first-order system with a characteristic time constant of 11.1 ms. The simulated force capability of the device is 0.57 mN per µm jaw displacement.
Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Química Implementação e Estudo de um Colector Solar do Tipo Termossifão e de um Sistema de Painéis Fotovoltaicos

Solar energy is the most abundant energy available on Earth; it is a clean and inexhaustible source of energy. This kind of energy can be converted in to heat through absoption of radiation or into electricity through the photovoltaic effect. The aim of this work was the implementation and study of a thermo solar collector (thermosiphon), kindly offered by NORQUENTE, and of a system of two photovoltaic panels. Both experimental setups will be used in the lab classes of the Master in Chemical Engineering. The solar collector system and photovoltaic panels were equipped with thermocouples, flowmeters and multimeters connected to a data acquisition system and signal treatment, allowing the record of all relevant data. For the system of photovoltaic panels, a robust support was also designed and installed and it allows rotation of the panels concerning inclination and azimuth. The development of data acquisition software and the calibration of the probing instruments were intermediate steps but crucial to the experimental work. In the thermo solar collector it was observed an increase of the global efficiency with the decrease of the power of solar radiation and with the increase of the flow rate of fresh water. The thermal efficiency obtained experimentally was in agreement with the relevant specifications of the equipment. The optimal inclination of the photovoltaic panels is more stable relative to the time and it was (20±1)° on May 21, from 11h00 to 15h00; on the other hand, the azimuth changes directly with the time of day, between 100°and 270°on July 17. It was observed a decrease of the efficiency with the increase of the temperature of the photovoltaic panels. Moreover, it was concluded that the efficiency decreased with solar power radiation. Finally, it was observed that when the panels’ surface was covered with talk powder, the efficiency declined.
Symbol Timing and Coarse Classification of Phase Modulated Signals on a Standalone SDR Platform

The Universal Classifier Synchronizer (UCS) is a Cognitive Radio system/sensor that can detect, classify, and extract the relevant parameters from a received signal to establish physical layer communications using the received signal’s profile. The current implementation is able to identify signals including AM, FM, MPSK, QAM, MFSK, and OFDM. The system is constructed to run on a Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) with the GNU Radio software toolkit and also runs on an AnritsuTM signal analyzer. In both prototypes, the UCS system runs on a host computer’s General Purpose Processor (GPP) and is constructed in MatlabTM. The aim is to then create a portable and standalone version of the UCS system as an intermediate step towards building a future commercial implementation. This application and particular implementation aims to run on a Lyrtech SFF SDR platform and uses its FPGA and DSP modules for implementation. This platform is one of the more advanced SDR platforms available, and the aim is to develop parts of the UCS system to run on this platform. The aim is to eventually develop the complete UCS cognitive radio system on the Lyrtech SFF SDR platform that can act as a standalone portable cognitive radio system. The modules created and implanted/implemented on the SDR hardware are the Bandwidth Estimation, and Symbol Timing & Coarse Classification modules. This is the system decision path towards classification, synchronization, and demodulation of digital phase modulated signals (QAM and MPSK signal types) and also analog signals. The Digital Receiver Module (DRM) is implemented on the FPGA and takes care of all the digital down conversions, mixing, decimation, and low pass filtering. The FPGA is connected to the DSP module via a bus subsystem where the DSP receives real-time base-band complex IQ samples for further signal processing. The main UCS algorithm runs on the platform’s DSP and is compiled from executable embedded C-code. Therefore, this system can then be implemented on virtually any setup that has an RF front end, digital receiver module, and processing module that will execute floating and fixed point C-code with minor changes.
Product-oriented process synthesis and development: Creams and pastes

A systematic procedure is presented for the synthesis and development of manufacturing processes for creams and pastes. The procedure integrates the skills of a chemist and a chemical engineer to produce a product with specified properties. The desired functional and sensorial performance of the product is first identified in terms of quality factors. Then, the requisite ingredients are selected, and the process flowsheet, as well as the operating conditions, is synthesized. There are four steps in the procedure: identification of product quality factors, product formulation, flowsheet synthesis, and product and process evaluation. Design guidelines, as well as physical models describing relevant phenomena, are used to assist decision-making at each step of the procedure.
A Strategy for Avoiding Energy Holes Based on Data Fusion in Wireless Sensor Network

Energy holes problem is one of key issues for wireless sensor networks (WSN). At present, the resolved strategies mainly focus on non-uniform node distribution and adjusting transmission power. However, some costs are incurred by non-uniform node distribution. With the number of nodes increasing, the total number of nodes grows exponentially, and there is a need to improve physical conditions when we increase transmission power significantly in large class of network model; To overcome the limitation, we propose the strategy of data fusion, whose reason is that it is not limited to the size of network, and does not need complicated physical conditions. In this paper, we first establish a network model Multiple-Layer and Multiple-Clusters in corona model (MLMC) to analyze the loading energy consumption. What’s more, we consider energy consumption when network is constructed. Furthermore, we fully introduce our strategy of data fusion, and prove two theorems to balance energy consumption for resolving energy holes problem. Finally, we compare and analyze the total energy consumption and network lifetime between before and after data fusion. The experimental results demonstrate the performance advantages of our approach. The best is to read these instructions and follow the outline of this text.
Arabic opinion target extraction from tweets

Twitter is an ocean of sentiments; users can express their opinion freely on a wide variety of topics. The unique characteristics that twitter holds introduce a different level of challenge in the field of sentiment analysis. Identifying the topic or the target of the expressed opinion is the aim of this study; Opinion target recognition is a task that has not been considered yet in Arabic Language. In this paper we propose a method to extract the opinion target from tweets written in Arabic language. The task is carried out in three phases. Phase 1: preprocess the tweet to delete unnecessary entities like mentions and URLs. Phase 2: construct a feature set from tweet words to be used in the classifying phase; these features are part-of-speech, Named entities, English words, tweet hash tags and part-of-speech pattern. Phase 3: Three classifiers are trained using the extracted features, to assign each word in the tweet to be either an opinion target or not, these classifiers are: Naive Bayes, Support vector machine and k-nearest neighbor, with an F-Measure result reaching 91%. 500 tweets are used for the experiment, where the opinion target was manually tagged. Finally, a comparison between the results of each model is conducted.
Subband coding of images with circular convolution

A novel filtering technique for subband coding (SBC) of images is introduced. The method avoids data increase, reduces reconstructed image data distortion, and activates any type of linear phase finite impulse response (FIR) filter. The procedure involves (1) special methods that generate periodic data from original nonperiodic data; (2) identifying the relation between periodic data types and filter types; and (3) the selection of an appropriate method of rate conversion. Simulation results show the benefit of the proposed method. <<ETX>>
THE NEXT GENERATION OF FETS: CNTFETS

In this paper we present an exhaustive description of the basic types of CNTFETs. In particular we review a model, already proposed by us, which allow an easy implementation in circuit simulators, such as SPICE and Verilog-A, both in analog and in digital applications. In fact we examine and discuss two design examples: a CNTFET amplifier in common-source configuration, for analog application, and NAND gates in a five stage chain, for digital one.
A Study on the Stability of Innovation Network in Tech-Typed Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Based on Cooperative Game

In the new condition of improving tech-typed small & medium-sized enterprises, it has important realistic meaning and theoretical significance how to construct a stability innovation network to ensure the enterprises innovation ability, and format and optimize innovation mechanism. In this paper, cooperative game method is used to describe and script the forming process of cooperation mechanism among network members, and its stability is analyzed and discussed. On the basis of this, it points out that only in cooperation, the stability of innovation network can be ensured, and it will make the all sides of innovation network get the largest benefits.
Nozzles for Variable Rate Fertilizer Application

Variable rate application of liquid fertilizer is challenging with standard fixed orifice nozzles because of the limited rate changes. Variable orifice nozzles have been developed that allow greater rate changes without huge pressure changes. Commercially available variable orifice nozzles were evaluated for variable rate fertilizer application. Eight nozzles from two manufacturers were tested at a range of flows from 0.2 to 0.8 gpm. Nozzles were evaluated for consistency among nozzles and repeatability of individual nozzles. Pressure was measured at each flow and pressure/flow curves were generated. TDVR-03 and VeriTarget showed inconsistent behavior among nozzles at different pressures. When compared to manufactures’ flow data it was noticed that VeriTarget nozzles appear to behave differently. Even though the flow rates of VeriTarget nozzles were different from manufacturers’ rated flow rate, it was observed that all the nozzles showed repeatable results and performed best above 40 psi.