Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Multi‐GNSS, Multifrequency, and Near‐Real‐Time Ionospheric TEC Monitoring System for South America

Taking advantage of the public Global Navigational Satellite Systems (GNSS) infrastructure in South America, an operational monitoring system for the total electron content (TEC) in the ionosphere has been developed. It incorporates data in near real time, from more than 90 GNSS satellites tracked by more than 200 ground stations. In turn, the system produces every 15 min a snapshot, that is a map, of the current state of the regional ionosphere, which is immediately available online. These maps could be employed, for example, to augment positioning with single‐frequency GNSS receivers. They could also be combined with similar products in order to obtain weighted and reliable regional TEC maps, even in near real time. Most importantly, these products could be employed as data input in space environment forecasting and nowcasting models, given their very short latency of just a few minutes. In order to assess the response of the whole system to severe geomagnetic disturbances, the performance of the whole monitoring system during an actual geomagnetic storm has been investigated. The results suggest that the near‐real‐time system should be quite capable to monitor the regional TEC at a high temporal rate even under such conditions.
THEORY OF MARTENSITIC MICROSTRUCTURE AND THE SHAPE-MEMORY EFFECT

This chapter describes a theory of martensitic microstructure. The theory explains why marten-sites form microstructure and describes how this microstructure depends, often delicately, on the crystalline symmetry and the lattice parameters. The shape-memory eect is analyzed with this theory and it is shown that only very special materials { those that satisfy signiicant restrictons on their symmery and lattice parameters { can display this eeect.
Pain relief and functional improvement in patients with neuropathic pain associated with spinal cord injury: an exploratory analysis of pregabalin clinical trials

Background Characterizing relationships between pain relief and function can inform patient management decisions. This analysis explored graphically the relationship between pain relief and functional improvement in patients with neuropathic pain associated with spinal cord injury in two clinical trials of pregabalin. Methods This was a post hoc analysis of two randomized, double-blind, clinical trials in patients who were treated with pregabalin (n=181) or placebo (n=172) for neuropathic pain associated with spinal cord injury. The bivariate relationship between percent pain relief and absolute change in the functional outcomes with placebo and pregabalin was evaluated graphically using scatter plots, and loess curves illustrated the extent of the relationship between pain and function. Linear trend analysis evaluated the statistical significance of these relationships using Initiative on Methods, Measurement, and Pain Assessment in Clinical Trials (IMMPACT)-based thresholds of pain reduction (<15%, 15% <30%, 30% to <50%, and ≥50%). Outcome measures included modified Brief Pain Inventory pain interference with function in one of the studies and the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (an 11-point Numeric Rating Scale) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) for the pooled studies. Results Data ellipses showed a shift with pregabalin relative to placebo toward greater improvement with increasing pain relief for all outcome measures except HADS. Loess curves suggested a relationship between increased pain relief and improved function except for HADS, with the clearest relationship observed for sleep. Linear trend analysis showed significant relationships between pain and Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (P<0.0001) and between pain and function on the modified Brief Pain Inventory Interference Index and most individual items (P<0.05). Conclusion Greater functional improvements were generally achieved at higher levels of clinically significant pain reduction. Pregabalin resulted in shifts from placebo toward greater functional improvement with greater pain relief.
Factors Influencing Intention to Gamble Online

The objective of this research was to validate a model on online gambling intention. Given that there are many forms of online gambling, this research focused on sports betting. We adopted the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as our research model. Additionally, we included subjective norm as an antecedent to online gambling intention. We tested the model using data collected from a questionnaire survey. We collected 212 returns from students in a Chinese tertiary institution. The results provide support for the six hypotheses proposed in our research. We discussed the implications of the results for industry practitioners and gambling counselors.
Immersive Augmented Reality Training for Complex Manufacturing Scenarios

In the complex manufacturing sector a considerable amount of resources are focused on developing new skills and training workers. In that context, increasing the effectiveness of those processes and reducing the investment required is an outstanding issue. In this paper we present an experiment that shows how modern Human Computer Interaction (HCI) metaphors such as collaborative mixed-reality can be used to transmit procedural knowledge and could eventually replace other forms of face-to-face training. We implement a real-time Immersive Augmented Reality (IAR) setup with see-through cameras that allows for collaborative interactions that can simulate conventional forms of training. The obtained results indicate that people who took the IAR training achieved the same performance than people in the conventional face-to-face training condition. These results, their implications for future training and the use of HCI paradigms in this context are discussed in this paper.
Optimizing Players' Expected Enjoyment in Interactive Stories

In interactive storytelling systems and other story-based computer games, a drama manager is a background agent that aims to bring about an enjoyable and coherent experience for the players. In this paper, we present a personalized drama manager that increases a player's expected enjoyment without removing player agency. Our personalized drama manager models a player's preference using data-driven techniques, predicts the probability the player transitioning to different story experiences, selects an objective experience that can maximize the player's expected enjoyment, and guides the player to the selected story experience. Human study results show that our drama manager can significantly increase players' enjoyment ratings in an interactive storytelling testbed, compared to drama managers in previous research.
Overlap interval partition join

Each tuple in a valid-time relation includes an interval attribute T that represents the tuple's valid time. The overlap join between two valid-time relations determines all pairs of tuples with overlapping intervals. Although overlap joins are common, existing partitioning and indexing schemes are inefficient if the data includes long-lived tuples or if intervals intersect partition boundaries. We propose Overlap Interval Partitioning (OIP), a new partitioning approach for data with an interval. OIP divides the time range of a relation into k base granules and defines overlapping partitions for sequences of contiguous granules. OIP is the first partitioning method for interval data that gives a constant clustering guarantee: the difference in duration between the interval of a tuple and the interval of its partition is independent of the duration of the tuple's interval. We offer a detailed analysis of the average false hit ratio and the average number of partition accesses for queries with overlap predicates, and we prove that the average false hit ratio is independent of the number of short- and long-lived tuples. To compute the overlap join, we propose the Overlap Interval Partition Join (OIPJoin), which uses OIP to partition the input relations on-the-fly. Only the tuples from overlapping partitions have to be joined to compute the result. We analytically derive the optimal number of granules, k, for partitioning the two input relations, from the size of the data, the cost of CPU operations, and the cost of main memory or disk IOs. Our experiments confirm the analytical results and show that the OIPJoin outperforms state-of-the-art techniques for the overlap join.
Enhancerless Cytomegalovirus Is Capable of Establishing a Low-Level Maintenance Infection in Severely Immunodeficient Host Tissues but Fails in Exponential Growth

ABSTRACT Major immediate-early transcriptional enhancers are genetic control elements that act, through docking with host transcription factors, as a decisive regulatory unit for efficient initiation of the productive virus cycle. Animal models are required for studying the function of enhancers paradigmatically in host organs. Here, we have sought to quantitatively assess the establishment, maintenance, and level of in vivo growth of enhancerless mutants of murine cytomegalovirus in comparison with those of an enhancer-bearing counterpart in models of the immunocompromised or immunologically immature host. Evidence is presented showing that enhancerless viruses are capable of forming restricted foci of infection but fail to grow exponentially.
Study of wire distribution in a slot of a motor fed by steep fronted pulses for lifetime extension

This paper proposes many technical recommendations in order to improve the lifetime of high reliability machine winding fed by PWM inverters. It bring to the fore to the specific constraints tied to random winding by a computation of winding turn-to-turn maximum voltage stress for any combination of the wire positions in the stator slot. That computation is based on an equivalent circuit of the winding presented in previous publications. The exploitation of the tool leads to several recommendations concerning the winding techniques, the turn-to-turn impregnation and finally the turn-to-ground insulation.
NO-Sensitive Guanylate Cyclase Isoforms NO-GC1 and NO-GC2 Contribute to Noise-Induced Inner Hair Cell Synaptopathy

Nitric oxide (NO) activates the NO-sensitive soluble guanylate cyclase (NO-GC, sGC) and triggers intracellular signaling pathways involving cGMP. For survival of cochlear hair cells and preservation of hearing, NO-mediated cascades have both protective and detrimental potential. Here we examine the cochlear function of mice lacking one of the two NO-sensitive guanylate cyclase isoforms [NO-GC1 knockout (KO) or NO-GC2 KO]. The deletion of NO-GC1 or NO-GC2 did not influence electromechanical outer hair cell (OHC) properties, as measured by distortion product otoacoustic emissions, neither before nor after noise exposure, nor were click- or noise-burst–evoked auditory brainstem response thresholds different from controls. Yet inner hair cell (IHC) ribbons and auditory nerve responses showed significantly less deterioration in NO-GC1 KO and NO-GC2 KO mice after noise exposure. Consistent with a selective role of NO-GC in IHCs, NO-GC β1 mRNA was found in isolated IHCs but not in OHCs. Using transgenic mice expressing the fluorescence resonance energy transfer–based cGMP biosensor cGi500, NO-induced elevation of cGMP was detected in real-time in IHCs but not in OHCs. Pharmacologic long-term treatment with a NO-GC stimulator altered auditory nerve responses but did not affect OHC function and hearing thresholds. Interestingly, NO-GC stimulation exacerbated the loss of auditory nerve response in aged animals but attenuated the loss in younger animals. We propose NO-GC2 and, to some degree, NO-GC1 as targets for early pharmacologic prevention of auditory fiber loss (synaptopathy). Both isoforms provide selective benefits for hearing function by maintaining the functional integrity of auditory nerve fibers in early life rather than at old age.
Protein-polysaccharide conjugates as food emulsifiers and steric stabilizers

Protein-based emulsifiers and stabilizers are important in food colloids. The potential of protein-polysaccharide conjugates prepared through the Maillard reaction as food emulsifiers and stabilizers has been well established and reported in the literature. In this work, following a review of previous studies, a preliminary investigation on the conjugates between whey protein isolate (WPI) and maltodextrins (MD) was conducted. The conjugates were prepared through two methods: dry-heating approach and wet-heating method, using the Spinning Disc Reactor (SDR), and their performance compared. The formation of these conjugates was confirmed by the spectrophotometric technique. Furthermore, the physicochemical properties of conjugates such as solubility, emulsifying activity and stability in oil-in-water system were also studied. The results show that WPI-MD conjugates prepared by dry-heating method exhibit enhanced solubility and emulsifying properties compared to native WPI. This improvement is most likely due to the enhanced steric stabilisation provided by the hydrophilic polysaccharide moiety. In the study of competitive adsorption between WPI-MD and unmodified WPI on oil-water interface (Chapter 3), both theoretical calculations from Self-Consistent-Field (SCF) model and results from surface pressures suggest that WPI-MD conjugate can adsorb onto the oil-water interface in the presence of unmodified WPI and not be easily displaced by unmodified WPI. The nature of polysaccharides can significantly influence the stabilizing properties of WPI-MD conjugates prepared via Maillard reactions. Experimental results from Chapter 4 suggest that longer polysaccharides attached to proteins have stronger steric stability than shorter ones in O/W emulsions. Furthermore, when lactose is present in WPI and MD mixtures as an impurity before dry-heat treatment, the stabilizing properties of Maillard-type products are not significantly affected even when the molar ratio between MD and lactose at 1:10. This interesting finding shows a potential to lower the cost of preparing whey protein based conjugates in large scale by using less pure whey protein from cheese manufacturing. The major obstacles for large-scale manufacturing of protein-polysaccharide conjugates are long preparation time (from a couple of days to a few weeks) and dry processing conditions for Maillard reactions. In this PhD project, a novel processing method to prepare protein-polysaccharide conjugates was explored by using Spinning Disc Reactor (SDR). This method can successfully combine WPI and MD in less than 20 mins under controlled processing conditions in an aqueous medium. The SDR-processed conjugates have similar stabilizing properties as the ones prepared through traditional dry-heat treatment. The details can be found in Chapter 5. Protein-polysaccharide conjugates have a promising future in food applications as new emulsifiers and stabilizers based on these studies.
Number and Laminar Distribution of Neurons in a Thalamocortical Projection Column of Rat Vibrissal Cortex

This is the second article in a series of three studies that investigate the anatomical determinants of thalamocortical (TC) input to excitatory neurons in a cortical column of rat primary somatosensory cortex (S1). Here, we report the number and distribution of NeuN-positive neurons within the C2, D2, and D3 TC projection columns in P27 rat somatosensory barrel cortex based on an exhaustive identification of 89 834 somata in a 1.15 mm3 volume of cortex. A single column contained 19 109 ± 444 neurons (17 560 ± 399 when normalized to a standard-size projection column). Neuron density differences along the vertical column axis delineated “cytoarchitectonic” layers. The resulting neuron numbers per layer in the average column were 63 ± 10 (L1), 2039 ± 524 (L2), 3735 ± 905 (L3), 4447 ± 439 (L4), 1737 ± 251 (L5A), 2235 ± 99 (L5B), 3786 ± 168 (L6A), and 1066 ± 170 (L6B). These data were then used to derive the layer-specific action potential (AP) output of a projection column. The estimates confirmed previous reports suggesting that the ensembles of spiny L4 and thick-tufted pyramidal neurons emit the major fraction of APs of a column. The number of APs evoked in a column by a sensory stimulus (principal whisker deflection) was estimated as 4441 within 100 ms post-stimulus.
Integrating computational thinking across the K--8 curriculum

The excitement around K-12 Computing Education in the United States is rapidly increasing and K-8 holds great potential as the entry point for the integration of computing. We examine how young learners can gain early exposure and engage in rich computational experiences in K-8. These experiences can build students’ computational thinking, understanding of CS concepts, experience with collecting and analyzing data, programming skills and confidence as critical thinkers. We discuss how three types of computational activities: digital storytelling, data collection and analysis, and computational science investigations, can be used to incorporate computational thinking (CT) across the curriculum.
Awareness of the patterns of delivery in urban slums of Ahmedabad city

Background: The field of medicine has changed over the years owing to the constant scientific advances and research. From a time when spontaneous vaginal delivery used to be the norm, to now, where the rates of Caesarean deliveries seemed to be increasing, obstetric care has evolved considerable. Several healthcare initiatives and schemes have been framed for the betterment of the female reproductive health in recent times. It is important to understand both medical as well socio-cultural factors that have caused this increase in the caesarean births. This study was conducted keeping in mind this trend and to find out the level of awareness regarding patterns of deliveries that factors into this trend.Methods: Cross – sectional study was done in women residing in an urban slum of Ahmedabad in February 2014. 68 consenting female were randomly selected for the study from the slum of ‘Madi no Kuvo’. Results: Majority of females (69%) were from age group 20-30 years. With a total number of 123 deliveries counted within the 68 female interviewed 67% were normal vaginal deliveries. 63% of surveyed women had deliveries at government hospital as civil hospital is nearby localities surveyed and cost incurrence was there in about half of deliveries while 27 % deliveries occurred at private hospitals.Conclusions: Majority of women would prefer to have normal delivery whenever it is possible. Majority of people were unaware about different government schemes to help females during pregnancy.
Collaborating against common enemies

This paper presents the first wide-scale study of correlated attacks, i.e., attacks mounted by the same source IP against different networks. Using a large dataset from 1700 intrusion detection systems (IDSs), we show that correlated attacks are prevalent in the current Internet; 20% of all offending sources mount correlated attacks and they account for more than 40% of all the IDS alerts in our logs. We also reveal important characteristics of these attacks. Correlated attacks appear at different networks within a few minutes of each other, indicating the difficulty of warding off these attacks by occasional offline exchange of lists of malicious IP addresses. Furthermore, correlated attacks are highly targeted. The 1700 IDSs can be divided into small groups with 4-6 members that do not change with time; IDSs in the same group experience a large number of correlated attacks, while IDSs in different groups see almost no correlated attacks. Our results have important implications on collaborative intrusion detection of common attackers. They show that collaborating IDSs need to exchange alert information in realtime. Further, exchanging alerts among the few fixed IDSs in the same correlation group achieves almost the same benefits as collaborating with all IDSs, while dramatically reducing the overhead.
Smart Grid Data Integrity Attacks

Real power injections at loads and generators, and real power flows on selected lines in a transmission network are monitored and transmitted over a SCADA network to the system operator. These are used in state estimation algorithms to make dispatch, re-balance and other energy management system [EMS] decisions. Coordinated cyber attacks on power meter readings can be designed to be undetectable by any bad data detection algorithm. These unobservable attacks present a serious threat to grid operations. Of particular interest are sparse attacks that involve the compromise of a modest number of meter readings. An efficient algorithm to find all unobservable attacks [under standard DC load flow approximations] involving the compromise of exactly two power injection meters and an arbitrary number of power meters on lines is presented. This requires O(n2m) flops for a power system with n buses and m line meters. If all lines are metered, there exist canonical forms that characterize all 3, 4, and 5-sparse unobservable attacks. These can be quickly detected with O(n2) flops using standard graph algorithms. Known-secure phasor measurement units [PMUs] can be used as countermeasures against a given collection of cyber attacks. Finding the minimum number of necessary PMUs is NP-hard. It is shown that p+1 PMUs at carefully chosen buses are sufficient to neutralize a collection of p cyber attacks.
Improving Automated Mapping in Reflexion Models Using Information Retrieval Techniques

The reflexion model technique supports structural conformance checking of software systems. The scalability of the technique is limited by the requirement for developers to provide a mapping between implementation entities and high-level modules. Such mapping is usually based on regular expressions, and it must also be updated as the system evolves. Automated mapping techniques exist but are solely based on structural dependencies. In this paper, we introduce an automated mapping technique for reflexion models based on information retrieval techniques. It makes use of source code vocabulary and their similarity to the vocabulary of high-level modules. Two case studies conducted across four systems show that the nature of the module view influences which technique performs best. Results also show that combining both mapping techniques into a two step-mapping algorithm generally increases recall, while keeping precision similar to the best approach used in isolation.