Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Null Subject Occurrence in Monolingual Spanish SLI: A Discriminant Function Analysis

Background: Child Spanish-speakers appear to use more null subjects than do adults. Null subject use, like the use of tense marking, is sensitive to discourse-pragmatics. Because tense marking has been used to identify child Spanish-speakers with specific language impairment (SLI) with near good sensitivity and specificity (89%), null subject use may as well, following the predictions of the Interface Deficit Hypothesis. We investigate the possibility that null subject occurrence may form part of a useful discriminant function for the identification of monolingual child Spanish-speakers diagnosed with specific language impairment. Methods: We evaluate the rate of null subject expression from spontaneous production data, together with results from independent measures of another discourse-sensitive construction, verb finiteness, in child Spanish. We perform a discriminant function analysis, using null subject expression as a target variable, among others, to classify monolingual child Spanish-speakers (N = 40) as SLI or as typically-developing (TD). Results: The SLI group is shown to have significantly higher scores than the TD group on null subject expression. Multiple discriminant functions, including the null subject variable with tense measures, and in combination with mean length of utterance in words (MLUw), are shown to provide good sensitivity and specificity (<90%) in the classification of children as SLI vs. TD. Conclusion: Our findings support the contention that null subject occurrence is a plausible reflection of the Interface Deficit of SLI for Spanish-speaking children.
Effect of Water-Based Nanolubricants in Ultrasonic Vibration Assisted Grinding

Currently, because of stricter environmental standards and highly competitive markets, machining operations, as the main part of the manufacturing cycle, need to be rigorously optimized. In order to simultaneously maximize the production quality and minimize the environmental issues related to the grinding process, this research study evaluates the performance of minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) grinding using water-based nanofluids in the presence of horizontal ultrasonic vibrations (UV). In spite of the positive impacts of MQL using nanofluids and UV which are extensively reported in the literature, there is only a handful of studies on concurrent utilization of these two techniques. To this end, for this paper, five kinds of water-based nanofluids including multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT), graphite, Al2O3, graphene oxide (GO) nanoparticles, and hybrid Al2O3/graphite were employed as MQL coolants, and the workpiece was oscillated along the feed direction with 21.9 kHz frequency and 10 µm amplitude. Machining forces, specific energy, and surface quality were measured for determining the process efficiency. As specified by experimental results, the variation in the material removal nature made by ultrasonic vibrations resulted in a drastic reduction of the grinding normal force and surface roughness. In addition, the type of nanoparticles dispersed in water had a strong effect on the grinding tangential force. Hybrid Al2O3/graphite nanofluid through two different kinds of lubrication mechanisms—third body and slider layers—generated better lubrication than the other coolants, thereby having the lowest grinding forces and specific energy (40.13 J/mm3). It was also found that chemically exfoliating the graphene layers via oxidation and then purification prior to dispersion in water promoted their effectiveness. In conclusion, UV assisted MQL grinding increases operation efficiency by facilitating the material removal and reducing the use of coolants, frictional losses, and energy consumption in the grinding zone. Improvements up to 52%, 47%, and 61%, respectively, can be achieved in grinding normal force, specific energy, and surface roughness compared with conventional dry grinding.
Fifty years of Rietveld refinement: Methodology and guidelines in superconductors and functional magnetic nanoadsorbents

The Rietveld refinement method has taken high relevance since its creation. Nowadays, it is an useful tool in many fields of industry, materials science, and technology. For these reasons, it becomes a need for scientists and engineers whom pretend to use it for proper analysis of their materials. However, the initiation in the method can be slow, taking into account the accelerated rhythm of the research and economic demands. Thus, this work is an intend to fulfill this hole, providing the basic foundations and methodology of the Rietveld refinement in a brief way, this along with the results of its application in superconducting samples of Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide and magnesium diboride, and functional magnetic nanoadsorbents of maghemite and a multiphasic composite (iron oxide, hydroxyapatite and secondary phases). In the process, an in-detail protocol was designed and provided. It was concluded that the samples were successfully refined and that this work represents a fast introduction to the Rietveld method for which beginners can obtain good results while making correct interpretations ofthe whole refinement process.
On Chern-Yamabe problem

We initiate the study of an analogue of the Yamabe problem for complex manifolds. More precisely, fixed a conformal Hermitian structure on a compact complex manifold, we are concerned in the existence of metrics with constant Chern scalar curvature. In this note, we set the problem and we provide a positive answer when the expected constant Chern scalar curvature is non-positive. In particular, this includes the case when the Kodaira dimension of the manifold is non-negative. Finally, we give some remarks on the positive curvature case, showing existence in some special cases and the failure, in general, of uniqueness of the solution.
Nanocellulose in Biotechnology and Medicine: Focus on Skin Tissue Engineering and Wound Healing

Nanocellulose is cellulose in the form of nanostructures, i.e. features not exceeding 100 nm at least in one dimension. These nanostructures include nanofibrils, e.g. in bacterial cellulose; nanofibers, e.g. in electrospun matrices; nanowhiskers and nanocrystals. These structures can be further assembled into bigger 2D and 3D nano-, micro- and macro-structures, such as nanoplatelets, membranes, films, microparticles and porous macroscopic matrices. There are four main sources of nanocellulose: bacteria (Gluonacetobacter), plants (trees, shrubs, herbs), algae (Cladophora) and animals (Tunicata). Nanocellulose has emerged for a wide range of industrial, technology and biomedical applications, e.g. for adsorption, ultrafiltration, packaging, conservation of historical artifacts, thermal insulation and fire retardation, energy extraction and storage, acoustics, sensorics, controlled drug delivery, and particularly for tissue engineering. Nanocellulose is promising for use in scaffolds for engineering of blood vessels, neural tissue, bone, cartilage, liver, adipose tissue, urethra and dura mater, for repairing connective tissue and congenital heart defects, and for constructing contact lenses and protective barriers. This review is focused on applications of nanocellulose in skin tissue engineering and wound healing as a scaffold for cell growth, for delivering cells into wounds, and as a material for advanced wound dressings coupled with drug delivery, transparency and sensorics. Potential cytotoxicity and immunogenicity of nanocellulose are also discussed.
SCHEDULED ACCESS STRATEGY FOR IMPROVING SENSOR NODE BATTERY LIFE TIME AND DELAY ANALYSIS OF WIRELESS BODY AREA NETWORK

In WBAN, energy efficiency is a major concern. The sensor nodes attached to the human body are battery-powered devices with a finite lifespan. These sensor nodes assist in gathering biological data from the human body and transmitting it to a control device. In WBAN, the MAC protocol is critical in evaluating a protocol’s energy efficiency. Traditional MAC protocols aim to boost throughput and bandwidth efficiency. The most critical aspect is that they lack in energy conserving mechanism. By employing correct control techniques that aid in the efficient use of energy resources, the useful network life time can be extended. Several MAC protocols for WBAN have been devised to reduce energy consumption, and packet collision, idle listening, overhearing, and control packet overhead are the main causes of energy waste in wireless networks. Idle listening, packet overhead, overhearing, and collision rate are all addressed by the energy-saving technique. In WBAN, we introduced a novel energy-efficient MAC protocol called Scheduled Access MAC (SAMAC) to extend the network life time without sacrificing QoS. Using the Castalia simulator, we analyze and compare the performance of our proposed SAMAC to that of the Baseline MAC (IEEE 802.15.6) and ZigBee MAC (IEEE 802.15.4) in terms of energy consumption, packet delivery ratio, and end-to-end delay. In terms of both energy conversion and WBAN Quality of Service, our simulation results suggest that our proposed SAMAC is more efficient than Baseline MAC and ZigBee MAC.
THE IMPACT OF COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE ACQUISITION AND UTILIZATION ON HOTELS' PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM MALAYSIA

Acquisition and frequency utilisation of Competitive Intelligence (CI) are critical strategic activities designed to assist firms in evaluating emerging trends in their business environments, major and potential threats, capabilities, and competitions for businesses today, particularly in the tourism and hotel sectors. However, there is still ambiguity about the impact of competitive-intelligence acquisition (CIA) and utilisation (CIU) on firms' performance, particularly for the hotel industry in a developing country such as Malaysia. Thus, the purposes of this research are to define the nature of CI practice in Malaysian hotels, and to illustrate the relative importance of various CIA types and sources to marketing managers in Malaysian hotels, moreover, to investigate the impact of CIA and CIU on the financial and non-financial performance of Malaysian hotels. A quantitative research design was adopted in this study. To obtain the necessary data for analysing the hypothesised model of the study, 505 questionnaires were issued to marketing managers in member hotels of the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH), and a total of 184 analyzable questionnaires were gathered, with a response rate of 34.44%. The research data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling and statistical package for social sciences "SPSS". Despite that half of the responding hotels practiced CI informally, and many of these hotels began practicing CI five years ago, the study found that hotel marketing managers have high and medium interest levels for most types and sources of CI in Malaysia, these five CIA's types were the most important: (1) competitors, (2) customers, (3) human resources, (4) socio-cultural, and (5) Global. As well, these five CIA's sources were the most important: the internet and extranets, (2) customers, (3) electronic information services/intranets, (4) business associates, and (5) newspapers and periodicals, and industry trade associations. Furthermore, the results indicate that CIA and CIU had a positive and significant impact on hotels' performance, but CIU has the most effect. These findings enrich those in positions of power like owners, managers, and practitioners, as well as academicians, with greater knowledge of the relationship and influence of CIA and CIU on firms' performance, particularly for hospitality and tourism firms.
‘ ETHYLENE 2012 ’ Advances in ethylene signalling : protein complexes at the endoplasmic reticulum membrane

The gaseous plant hormone ethylene plays critical roles in plant responses to environmental and endogenous signals that modulate growth and development. Over the past 25 years, great progress has been made in elucidating the ethylene signalling pathway. Genetic studies in Arabidopsis thaliana have identified key components of the pathway, and subcellular localization studies have shown that most of these components, other than transcription factors and protein turnover machinery, are associated with or lie within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane. The ethylene receptors are found in high-molecular-mass protein complexes and interact with the CTR1 serine/threonine protein kinase and the genetically downstream EIN2 Nramp-like protein. To more fully understand the ethylene signalling pathway, recent research has focused on examining the molecular connections between these components and how they are regulated. Here, we review recent advances and remaining gaps in our understanding of the early steps in the ethylene signalling pathway taking place at the ER.
Multi-asperity contact: A comparison between discrete dislocation and crystal plasticity predictions

Plane strain indentation of single crystals by a periodic array of flat rigid contacts is analyzed. The calculations are carried out, with the mechanical response of the crystal characterized by conventional continuum crystal plasticity or by discrete dislocation plasticity. The properties used in the conventional crystal plasticity description are chosen so that both theories give essentially the same response in uniform plane strain compression. The indentation predictions are then compared, focusing in particular on the effect of contact size and spacing. The limiting cases of frictionless contacts and of perfectly sticking contacts are analyzed. Conventional continuum plasticity predicts a size-independent response. Unless the contact spacing to size ratio is very small, the predicted deformation mode under the contacts is a wedging mechanism of the type described by slip line theory, which is only weakly sensitive to friction conditions. For the micron scale contacts analyzed, discrete dislocation plasticity predicts a response that depends on the contact size as well as on the contact spacing to size ratio. When contacts are spaced sufficiently far apart, discrete dislocation plasticity predicts that the deformation is localized beneath the contacts, whereas for more closely spaced contacts, deformation occurs by shear bands extending relatively far into the crystal. Unless the contacts are sufficiently close together so that the response is essentially one of plane strain compression, the mean contact pressure predicted by discrete dislocation plasticity is substantially greater than that predicted by conventional continuum crystal plasticity and is more sensitive to the friction conditions.
Hybrid Carbon/Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer; A Frontier Material for Aerospace Industry : A Review on Mechanical Properties Enhancement

Composite is the combination of two or more materials that differ in properties and composition to form unique properties. This paper reported in the literature on the field of deformation of hybrid composite under tensile, shear and flexural loading are presented in this chapter. This article review provides insight and state of the art for mechanics of composites that provides underlying theory for understanding the deformation and behaviour for the hybrid composite under various loading conditions. This paper also discusses mechanical behaviour of hybrid composites under static loading (Tensile, Shear, Flexural). It is essential to understand the principle that governs the mechanics of composites of laminate under loading which also applicable to hybrid composites C/GFRP.The high modulus fibre, such as Carbon fibre offers stiffness and load bearing capabilities, whereas the low modulus fibre, such as glass fibre makes the composite more durable and low in cost
Sustainability of greening measures by Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020 in new climate scenarios in a Mediterranean area

Sustainable management of natural resources and climate action together form one of the three objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2014–2020. They are addressed by replacing the existing direct payments under Pillar 1 with a basic payment topped up by an additional payment conditional on farmers undertaking “agricultural practices beneficial for the climate and the environment”, under a policy referred to as greening. In this study, the impact of greening was assessed using a Discrete Stochastic Programming model that describes the farm production in a Mediterranean agricultural area in different climate scenarios. The results show that greening is not beneficial throughout the study area. Some farm types are particularly affected because of the recent price increase for maize silage for biogas. However, greening appears to have a positive impact on chemical use, particularly nitrogen. The application of the measures greening in the current climate scenario seems to have a more significant impact respect to the future climate scenario.
Mixed-State Entanglement and Distillation: Is there a “Bound” Entanglement in Nature?

It is shown that if a mixed state can be distilled to the singlet form it must violate partial transposition criterion [A. Peres, Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 1413 (1996)]. It implies that there are two qualitatively different types of entanglement: ``free'' entanglement which is distillable, and ``bound'' entanglement which cannot be brought to the singlet form useful for quantum communication purposes. A possible physical meaning of the result is discussed.
StarCAT: A CATALOG OF SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGING SPECTROGRAPH ULTRAVIOLET ECHELLE SPECTRA OF STARS

StarCAT is a catalog of high resolution ultraviolet spectra of objects classified as “stars,” recorded by Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) during its initial seven years of operations (1997–2004). StarCAT is based on 3184 echelle observations of 545 distinct targets, with a total exposure duration of 5.2 Ms. For many of the objects, broad ultraviolet coverage has been achieved by splicing echellegrams taken in two or more FUV (1150–1700 Å) and/or NUV (1600–3100 Å) settings. In cases of multiple pointings on conspicuously variable sources, spectra were separated into independent epochs. Otherwise, different epochs were combined to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). A post-facto correction to the pipeline data sets compensated for subtle wavelength distortions identified in a previous study of the STIS calibration lamps. An internal “fluxing” procedure yielded coherent spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for objects with broadly overlapping wavelength coverage. The best StarCAT material achieves 300 m s−1 internal velocity precision; absolute accuracy at the 1 km s−1 level; photometric accuracy of order 4%; and relative flux precision several times better (limited mainly by knowledge of SEDs of UV standard stars). While StarCAT represents a milestone in the large-scale post-processing of STIS echellegrams, a number of potential improvements in the underlying “final” pipeline are identified.
The trajectory of maternal and paternal fatigue and factors associated with fatigue across the transition to parenthood

Background Fatigue is prevalent in new parents and is associated with poorer functional performance and cognitive functioning. This can be particularly detrimental during the transition to parenthood when parents are adapting to new roles and demands. Examining the course of fatigue and related factors can provide important avenues for intervention and prevention. Methods In this longitudinal study, we assessed fatigue and its correlates in 108 mother/father couples. Multilevel modelling examined the prevalence and trajectory of fatigue across the transition to parenthood, as well as factors associated with post-partum fatigue. Parents completed measures of fatigue, prenatal stress, depression and health, and post-natal parental sleep quality, infant sleep duration, and infant negativity. Results Mothers' and fathers' fatigue increased following the birth of their infant and remained at high levels. Poor sleep quality, stress, and depression were associated with maternal and paternal fatigue, while infant characteristics were more strongly associated with maternal fatigue. Prenatal depressive symptoms, parental sleep quality, infant sleep duration, and the interaction of gender by prenatal fatigue predicted post-natal fatigue in our model. Conclusion Our results highlight the need for health professionals to educate new parents about fatigue and its management beyond the prenatal period. As correlates of fatigue for mothers and fathers differ, we need to expand our understanding of paternal fatigue and develop interventions tailored to their unique experiences.
TEMPORAL ANALYSIS AND SHAPE CONTROL OF UV HIGH ENERGY LASER PULSES FOR PHOTOINJECTORS

This work shows a survey of the studies conceived for obtaining Ultraviolet, high energy laser pulses, totally controlled and characterized in shape, on the kHz, Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA)-based Ti:Sa laser system PLFA at CEA-Saclay. The pulse shaping deals with the amplitude and phase control of the stretched laser pulses issued from an amplifier before entering the compressor and the tripling unit. The work presents the theoretical background and the proposed experimental setup, before showing the preliminary promising results.
Byte VR Storytelling & Classical Ballet

This initial stage paper focuses on the Virtual Reality (VR) experience of the [pain]Byte ballet. The live and VR experience debut October 1st 2017, as part of the Brighton digital festival. Specifically, the development of the VR environment to compliment live performance by using the same choreography to create an option capture element of the VR story telling experience. Reviewing Virtual & Alternative reality gaming & storytelling works and the use of VR for chronic pain management (Chen, Win). Does the VR experience compare to that of the live theatre for the audience?
2 Indicators of perioperative myocardial injury and infarction in cardiac surgery

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. For a large number of patients with CHD, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery remains the preferred strategy for coronary revascularization. Over the last 10 years, the number of high-risk patients undergoing CABG surgery has increased significantly, resulting in worse clinical outcomes in this patient group. This appears to be related to the ageing population, increased co-morbidities (such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, stroke), concomitant valve disease, and advances in percutaneous coronary intervention which have resulted in patients with more complex coronary artery disease undergoing surgery. These high-risk patients are more susceptible to peri-operative myocardial injury and infarction (PMI), a major cause of which is acute global ischaemia/reperfusion injury arising from inadequate myocardial protection during CABG surgery. Therefore, novel therapeutic strategies are required to protect the heart in this high-risk patient group. In this article, we review the aetiology of PMI during CABG surgery, its diagnosis and clinical significance, and the endogenous and pharmacological therapeutic strategies available for preventing it. By improving cardioprotection during CABG surgery, we may be able to reduce PMI, preserve left ventricular systolic function, and reduce morbidity and mortality in these high-risk patients with CHD.