Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling of small wind turbine characteristics

Small wind turbine driven generators with power rating less than 10 kW have emerged as an important segment for meeting the stand-alone electrical load demand at remote locations. The operating characteristics of the small wind turbines are very different from their megawatt class counterparts as their blades operate at much lower Reynolds number. To design a suitable control topology for a wind energy generation system based on such small turbines, it is essential to model the turbine parameters and analyze the operating characteristics. In this paper an algorithm for obtaining the parameters and the performance characteristics of a 3 kW wind turbine is presented. Performance characteristics of the wind turbine obtained analytically from this algorithm are validated against experimental characteristics reported earlier in literature.
Bone manganese as a biomarker of manganese exposure: a feasibility study.

BACKGROUND There is a need for a diagnostic tool with the ability to measure cumulative exposure to manganese (Mn) in the workplace. Measuring bone Mn levels with in vivo neutron activation analysis (IVNAA) could serve as a biomarker of past exposure. Bone Mn levels of welders were measured and compared to the levels found in subjects without exposure to the element. METHOD Forty subjects (30 welders and 10 controls) were recruited. An occupational history was obtained and subjects underwent IVNAA bone Mn measurements. RESULTS The mean bone Mn levels were (2.9 +/- 0.4) and (0.1 +/- 0.7) microg Mn/g Ca for welders and controls, respectively (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS This project, the first of its kind, reports differences in bone Mn between Mn-exposed welders and non-occupationally exposed subjects. It appears that bone Mn levels do reflect differences in the occupational exposure of welders.
Two Japanese Cases of Birt-Hogg-Dubé Syndrome with Pulmonary Cysts, Fibrofolliculomas, and Renal Cell Carcinomas

Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome (BHD) is a rare autosomal dominant inherited disease caused by a germline mutation in the folliculin gene mapped in the region of chromosome 17p11.2. BHD predisposes the patient to cutaneous fibrofolliculomas (FFs), pulmonary cysts (PCs), and renal cell carcinoma (RC). Here, we present two cases of BHD in Japanese patients. One patient was a 37-year-old female, and the other a 35-year-old male. Each of the patients was affected by all three symptoms of BHD. Both patients had unremarkable FFs, asymptomatic PCs, and asymptomatic RC. The presence of RC was revealed by abdominal ultrasonic examination. We also summarized the data from 62 Asian cases of BHD from the available literature and found that their FFs were unremarkable. In addition, the proportion of BHD patients with FF is smaller for Asian patients than it is for Caucasian patients. We also found that it is rare for BHD patients in Asia to show all three symptoms of BHD. Careful inspection of the skin as well as skin biopsies are important for the early detection of BHD cases in Asia.
Somatoform Dissociation, Reported Abuse and Animal Defence-Like Reactions

Objective: To test the hypotheses that among general psychiatric outpatients, somatoform dissociation is associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms and with reported potentially traumatizing events, especially with events that involve bodily threat from a person, also when reported age at onset, duration and subjectively rated impact of potentially traumatizing events are considered. Method: Administration of self-report questionnaires evaluating the severity of somatoform and psychoform dissociation, posttraumatic stress-symptoms, and reported traumatizing events, using samples of consecutive and unselected psychiatric outpatients (n = 153). Results: Somatoform dissociation was strongly correlated with posttraumatic stress symptoms and with reported cumulative traumatization as assessed with two different self-report trauma questionnaires. Among a wide range of trauma types, bodily threat from a person best predicted somatoform dissociation. Emotional neglect and age further improved the prediction, but emotional neglect and abuse did not predict somatoform dissociation when interpersonal threat to the body was not reported. Somatoform dissociation was also best predicted by bodily threat when reported age at onset, duration and subjective impact of reported traumatization were included in the analyses. Conclusion: This retrospective study suggests that recurrent interpersonal bodily threat may evoke animal defence-like psychobiological systems manifesting as somatoform dissociation and that this type of threat is often accompanied by emotional neglect. These hypotheses should now be tested in prospective studies.
Lead Contamination in Cocoa and Cocoa Products: Isotopic Evidence of Global Contamination

In this article we present lead concentrations and isotopic compositions from analyses of cocoa beans, their shells, and soils from six Nigerian cocoa farms, and analyses of manufactured cocoa and chocolate products. The average lead concentration of cocoa beans was ≤ 0.5 ng/g, which is one of the lowest reported values for a natural food. In contrast, lead concentrations of manufactured cocoa and chocolate products were as high as 230 and 70 ng/g, respectively, which are consistent with market-basket surveys that have repeatedly listed lead concentrations in chocolate products among the highest reported for all foods. One source of contamination of the finished products is tentatively attributed to atmospheric emissions of leaded gasoline, which is still being used in Nigeria. Because of the high capacity of cocoa bean shells to adsorb lead, contamination from leaded gasoline emissions may occur during the fermentation and sun-drying of unshelled beans at cocoa farms. This mechanism is supported by similarities in lead isotopic compositions of cocoa bean shells from the different farms (206Pb/207Pb = 1.1548–1.1581; 208Pb/207Pb = 2.4344–2.4394) with those of finished cocoa products (206Pb/207Pb = 1.1475–1.1977; 208Pb/207Pb = 2.4234–2.4673). However, the much higher lead concentrations and larger variability in lead isotopic composition of finished cocoa products, which falls within the global range of industrial lead aerosols, indicate that most contamination occurs during shipping and/or processing of the cocoa beans and the manufacture of cocoa and chocolate products.
Allergen‐specific immunotherapy: is it vaccination against toxins after all?

IgE‐mediated allergies, in particular allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma, have reached epidemic proportions, affecting about one‐third of the population in developed countries. The most effective treatment for allergies is specific immunotherapy (SIT), which involves the injection of increasing doses of an allergen extract to allergic individuals. The current form of SIT was first introduced in 1911 and recently celebrated its 100th birthday for the treatment of hay fever. The concept of this therapy at the time was straightforward, as it was believed that pollen contained toxins against which the patient could be vaccinated. However, the understanding became blurred with the discovery that IgE antibodies were the effector molecules of the allergic response. Subsequent research focused on the idea that SIT should induce tolerance keeping the IgE antibodies at bay. In this review, we will discuss the various hypotheses for the mechanism of SIT and we will put forward the concept that allergens may be viewed as ‘protoxins’ which need to be activated by IgE antibodies. Within this framework, protoxin‐neutralizing antibodies are the key effector molecules while a shift to Th1 or Treg cells mainly contributes to the efficacy of SIT by helping B cells to produce neutralizing IgG antibodies.
Influence of stripe rust infection on the photosynthetic characteristics and antioxidant system of susceptible and resistant wheat cultivars at the adult plant stage

Wheat stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, Pst), is one of the most serious diseases of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) worldwide. To gain a better understanding of the protective mechanism against stripe rust at the adult plant stage, the differences in photosystem II and antioxidant enzymatic systems between susceptible and resistant wheat in response to stripe rust disease (P. striiformis) were investigated. We found that chlorophyll fluorescence and the activities of the antioxidant enzymes were higher in resistant wheat than in susceptible wheat after stripe rust infection. Compared with the susceptible wheat, the resistant wheat accumulated a higher level of D1 protein and a lower level of reactive oxygen species after infection. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that D1 and light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) phosphorylation are involved in the resistance to stripe rust in wheat. The CP29 protein was phosphorylated under stripe rust infection, like its phosphorylation in other monocots under environmental stresses. More extensive damages occur on the thylakoid membranes in the susceptible wheat compared with the resistant wheat. The findings provide evidence that thylakoid protein phosphorylation and antioxidant enzyme systems play important roles in plant responses and defense to biotic stress.
Behavioral Symptoms in Vascular Cognitive Impairment and Vascular Dementia

Noncognitive or behavioral and psychological symptoms (BPSD) are common in vascular dementia. Many occur with the same frequency as in Alzheimer's disease, though depression, emotional lability, and apathy may be more common and psychosis less so. There is a particularly strong relationship between cerebrovascular disease and depression.
Local Possibilistic Logic

ABSTRACT Possibilistic states of information are fuzzy sets of possible worlds. They constitute a complete lattice, which can be endowed with a monoidal operation (a t-norm) to produce a quantal. An algebraic semantics is presented which links possibilistic formulae with information states, and gives a natural interpretation of logical connectives as operations on fuzzy sets. Due to the quantal structure of information states, we obtain a system which shares several features with (exponential-free) intuitionistic linear logic. Soundness and completeness are proved, parametrically on the choice of the t-norm operation.
Predicting Market Impact Costs Using Nonparametric Machine Learning Models

Market impact cost is the most significant portion of implicit transaction costs that can reduce the overall transaction cost, although it cannot be measured directly. In this paper, we employed the state-of-the-art nonparametric machine learning models: neural networks, Bayesian neural network, Gaussian process, and support vector regression, to predict market impact cost accurately and to provide the predictive model that is versatile in the number of variables. We collected a large amount of real single transaction data of US stock market from Bloomberg Terminal and generated three independent input variables. As a result, most nonparametric machine learning models outperformed a-state-of-the-art benchmark parametric model such as I-star model in four error measures. Although these models encounter certain difficulties in separating the permanent and temporary cost directly, nonparametric machine learning models can be good alternatives in reducing transaction costs by considerably improving in prediction performance.
Single Versus Repetitive Doses of Natural Surfactant as Treatment of Respiratory Distress Syndrome in Premature Lambs

ABSTRACT: After delivery by caesarean section at 117–120 and 125–130 days gestational age, 20 lambs were supported with infant ventilators at an FiO2 of 1.0. Throughout the experimental period the respiratory settings were held constant. All lambs were treated by tracheal instillation of 50 mg natural sheep surfactant lipid/kg body weight at 1 h of age, after respiratory failure had been documented. All lambs responded with a decrease in PaCO2 and increases in PaO2 and pH, but these responses were of greater magnitude with advancing gestational age. Without waiting for respiratory failure to reappear, repetitive doses of natural surfactant were administered and the effects studied. Retreatment by instillation of 12.5 mg surfactant/kg at 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 h of age was ineffective at 117–120 days gestational age, but sustained the initial response to the bolus of 50 mg surfactant/kg at 125–130 days gestational age. This indicates that retreatment with natural surfactant should be started before the reappearance of respiratory failure in order to be effective, and that the response to retreatment with small, repetitive doses of surfactant is dependent on gestational age.
Real-time tracking of multiple objects with locally adaptive correlation filters

A tracking algorithm using locally adaptive correlation ﬁltering is proposed. The algorithm is designed to track multiple objects with invariance to pose, occlusion, clutter, and illumination variations. The algorithm employs a prediction scheme and composite correlation ﬁlters. The ﬁlters are synthesized with the help of an iterative algorithm, which optimizes discrimination capability for each target. The ﬁlters are adapted online to targets changes using information of current and past scene frames. Results obtained with the proposed algorithm using real-life scenes, are presented and compared with those obtained with state-of-the-art tracking methods in terms of detection e ﬃ ciency, tracking accuracy, and speed of processing.
An access authorization model for relational databases based on algebraic manipulation of view definitions

A model of access authorization is described for relational databases. In this model access permissions are a form of database knowledge, from which access permissions that apply to specific requests are inferred. Database access is specified in terms of views: a set of views is defined, and each user is granted permission to access one or more views. Users direct queries at the actual database, not at any particular view. When a request to access a view is presented to the database system, the system derives views of the request that are views of the views to which the user has access permission and presents the user only with these views. The model represents the definitions of views in special metarelations and extends standard algebraic operators to these relations. <<ETX>>
Support across two generations: children's closeness to grandparents following parental divorce and remarriage.

There has been relatively little research on the role of grandparents as a source of support for children during and following their parents' marital transitions. In this study, we examined children's contact with and closeness to grandparents in different family types (i.e., two biological parents, single mother, stepparent). Participants included 155 children from the Avon Brothers and Sisters Study. Parent and child interviews and questionnaires regarding the children's relationships with maternal and paternal biological and stepgrandparents were examined. There were family type differences in rates of contact with grandparents as well as children's closeness to grandparents. Furthermore, children's and parents' view about these relationships with grandparents were modestly correlated, suggesting that children often held different views about their closeness to their grandparents than did their parents. Greater closeness to grandparents was associated with fewer adjustment problems.
INTROGRESSION ACROSS ISOLATING BARRIERS IN WILD AND CULTIVATED ORYZA SPECIES

Cultivated rice species and their wild relatives are differentiated into several groups mutually isolated by various types of reproductive barriers (Chu et al., 1969a). Their natural hybrids occur across the barriers. In West Africa, two cultivated species, Oryza sativa L. and O. glaberrima Steud. are often in mixed culture, while their respective wild relatives, O. perennis Moench subsp. barthii and O. breviligulata Chev. et Roehr. grow sympatrically as weeds. Hybrid swarms between glaberrima and breviligulata are frequently found, but natural hybrids of other species are rare (Oka and Chang, 1964). O. sativa is isolated from O. glaberrima and O. breviligulata by an F1 sterility barrier. O. perennis subsp. barthii is isolated from others by a crossing barrier and partly by F1 weakness and sterility (Chu and Oka, 1970). However, some barthii populations in West Africa were found to be contaminated by introgression. The junior author formerly reported that "the African forms of perennis are of two types, one with a small number of panicles per plant, a small number of spikelets per panicle and high pollen fertility, and the other with the same characters in opposite" (Oka, 1964, p. 86). Jachuck and Sampath (1967) also pointed out that some barthii strains varied widely in fertility and other characters and might be highly heterozygous. We often found off-types (or the second type mentioned above) of barthii among plants raised from seeds collected in natural
A Comparative Efficacy of Low-Dose Combined Oral Contraceptives Containing Desogestrel and Drospirenone in Premenstrual Symptoms

Objective. To compare the efficacy of low-dose COC containing desogestrel (DSG) with drospirenone (DRSP) in the changes of premenstrual symptoms. Methods. In an open-label randomized controlled trial, 90 women with premenstrual syndrome who required COC were randomly recruited and allocated equally to receive either 6 cycles of 20 micrograms ethinyl estradiol (EE)/150 micrograms DSG (DSG group) or 20 micrograms EE/3 mg DRSP (DRSP group) in 24/4 extended regimen. Analysis of covariance and repeated analysis of variance were used to determine the difference of mean Women's Health Assessment Questionnaire (WHAQ) scores changes between groups, within group, and in premenstrual, menstrual, and postmenstrual phases. Results. Baseline characteristics and WHAQ scores were comparable. At the ends of the 3rd and the 6th cycles, mean WHAQ scores of all the 3 phases in DRSP group showed significant reduction and were significantly lower than those in DSG group. DSG group showed significant reduction in both premenstrual and menstrual phases after the 6th cycle. Adverse effects were comparable in both groups. In conclusion, low-dose COC containing either DSG or DRSP reduced premenstrual symptoms, but the latter showed greater efficacy and earlier reduction.
A continuation: study and characterisation of Mycobacterium leprae short tandem repeat genotypes and transmission of leprosy in Cebu, Philippines.

OBJECTIVE To study the stability and allelic diversity of tandem repeat loci in M. leprae in leprosy patients of Cebu, Philippines, and the suitability of multilocus variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) analysis (MLVA) typing for detecting transmission. METHODS Seventy newly diagnosed leprosy patients consulting at the Leonard Wood Memorial, Cebu Skin Clinic Total DNA was extracted from slit skin smear (SSS) scrapings of each patient and used for amplification of 13 M. leprae VNTR loci by single locus or multiplex PCR. Number of repeats for each VNTR locus was obtained by DNA sequencing or fragment length analysis methods. Medical, social and geographic details were included in the molecular epidemiology database. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Multiplex PCR (MP) and fragment length analysis (FLA) methods were found to be more efficient and accurate compared to single short tandem repeat (STR) amplification and DNA sequencing. Intra-patient MLVA patterns from four different samples were conserved in the minisatellites, while differences in one or more of the polymorphic and stutter prone microsatellites was observed, in four of five patients. The 13 loci could differentiate M. leprae strains in Cebu, however, MLVA patterns were stable enough during incubation and transmission between individuals within multi-case families. Thus M. leprae MLVA has potential for strain typing and transmission studies in Cebu.
Biological Activities of Phenolic Compounds of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Over the last few decades, multiple biological properties, providing antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, chemopreventive and anti-cancer benefits, as well as the characteristic pungent and bitter taste, have been attributed to Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) phenols. In particular, growing efforts have been devoted to the study of the antioxidants of EVOO, due to their importance from health, biological and sensory points of view. Hydrophilic and lipophilic phenols represent the main antioxidants of EVOO, and they include a large variety of compounds. Among them, the most concentrated phenols are lignans and secoiridoids, with the latter found exclusively in the Oleaceae family, of which the drupe is the only edible fruit. In recent years, therefore, we have tackled the study of the main properties of phenols, including the relationships between their biological activity and the related chemical structure. This review, in fact, focuses on the phenolic compounds of EVOO, and, in particular, on their biological properties, sensory aspects and antioxidant capacity, with a particular emphasis on the extension of the product shelf-life.
Parsing with probabilistic strictly locally testable tree languages

Probabilistic k-testable models (usually known as k-gram models in the case of strings) can be easily identified from samples and allow for smoothing techniques to deal with unseen events during pattern classification. In this paper, we introduce the family of stochastic k-testable tree languages and describe how these models can approximate any stochastic rational tree language. The model is applied to the task of learning a probabilistic k-testable model from a sample of parsed sentences. In particular, a parser for a natural language grammar that incorporates smoothing is shown.
Div400: a social image retrieval result diversification dataset

In this paper we propose a new dataset, Div400, that was designed to support shared evaluation in different areas of social media photo retrieval, e.g., machine analysis (re-ranking, machine learning), human-based computation (crowdsourcing) or hybrid approaches (relevance feedback, machine-crowd integration). Div400 comes with associated relevance and diversity assessments performed by human annotators. 396 landmark locations are represented via 43,418 Flickr photos and metadata, Wikipedia pages and content descriptors for text and visual modalities. To facilitate distribution, only Creative Commons content was included in the dataset. The proposed dataset was validated during the 2013 Retrieving Diverse Social Images Task at the MediaEval Benchmarking Initiative for Multimedia Evaluation.
Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide for Management, Business and Market Researchers

Introduction PART ONE: PHILOSPHY, PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES The Qualitative Turn in Management Research Grounded Theory Evolutionary Developments and Fundamental Processes Getting Started Data Collection and Sampling Analyses, Interpretation and the Writing Process PART TWO: GROUNDED THEORY: AN ILUSTRATION OF THE PROCESS Researching the Consumer Experience An Illustration of the Grounded Theory Method The Identification and Explanation of Concepts and Categories PART THREE: SOME CONCLUDING REMARKS A Critical Review of the Methodology