The ability of amorphous intergranular films to mitigate damage formation at grain boundaries is studied with molecular dynamics simulations. We find that such films can alter both crack nucleation and crack growth rates by efficiently absorbing dislocations, with thicker films being more effective sinks. Local plastic strain brought by incoming dislocations is diffused into a triangular region...

We present a technique for extracting structural features from cursive Arabic script. After preprocessing, the skeleton of the binary word image is decomposed into a number of segments in a certain order. Each segment is transformed into a feature vector. The target features are the curvature of the segment, its length relative to other segment lengths of the same word, the position of the segm...

Organic medicinal agents are compounds (molecules) composed of individual atoms linked via chemical bonds. The primary elements of OMAs are carbon (C) and hydrogen (H). Other elements found in lesser abundance in OMA structures include nitrogen (N), oxygen (O), sulfur (S), phosphorous (P) and halogens (F, Cl, Br, I). Examples of the contributions of these atoms in various drug molecules are sho...

Autotomy refers to the voluntary shedding of a body part; a renowned example is tail loss among lizards as a response to attempted predation. Although many aspects of lizard tail autotomy have been studied, the detailed morphology and mechanism remains unclear. In the present study, we showed that tail shedding by the Tokay gecko (Gekko gecko) and the associated extracellular matrix (ECM) ruptu...

Sentiment analysis is the problem of determining the polarity of a text with respect to a particular topic. For most applications, however, it is not only necessary to derive the polarity of a text as a whole but also to extract negative and positive utterances on a more finegrained level. Sentiment analysis systems working on the (sub-)sentence level, however, are difficult to develop since sh...

Crotches were cut out of red maple (Acer rubrum), callery pear (Pyrus calleryana), and sawtooth oak (Quercus acutissima) trees (2.5”-7” d.b.h.) and then pulled apart in an engineering testing machine to identify physical parameters correlated with crotch strength. Parameters measured included the diameter of the branch and of the trunk above and below the crotch, angle of the branch and branch ...

statement of the problem: in the evolution of orthodontics, the changes in soft tissue, especially smile line attracts considerable attention. purpose: the present study was carried out to evaluate the correlation of the smile line with the vertical parameters of anterior part of face. materials and methods: forty-six iranian adults, aged between 18-25 years were selected. five quantitative and...

The adaptation of microorganisms to extreme living temperatures requires the evolution of enzymes with a high catalytic efficiency under these conditions. Such extremophilic enzymes represent valuable tools to study the relationship between protein stability, dynamics and function. Nevertheless, the multiple effects of temperature on the structure and function of enzymes are still poorly unders...

Apoptosis, also called programmed cell death, is an orderly cellular suicide program that is critical for the development, immune regulation and homeostasis of a multi-cellular organism. Failure to control this process can lead to serious human diseases, including many types of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and autoimmununity. The process of apoptosis is mediated by the sequential activat...

Aromatase is the enzyme synthesizing estrogens from androgens. In estrogen-dependent breast tumors, estrogens induce the expression of growth factors responsible for cancer cell proliferation. In situ estrogen synthesis by aromatase "is thought to play a key role in the promotion of breast cancer growth. Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) provide new approaches for the prevention and treatment of breas...