Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bio-Inspired Communication for Self-Regulated Multi-Robot Sytems

In recent years, the study of social insects and other animals has revealed that collectively, the relatively simple individuals in these self-organized societies can solve various complex and large problems using only a few behavioural rules (Camazine et al., 2001). In these self-organized systems, individual agents may have limited cognitive, sensing and communication capabilities, but they are collectively capable of solving complex and large problems, e.g., coordinated nest construction of honey-bees, collective defence of school fish from a predator attack. Since the discovery of these collective behavioural patterns of self-organized societies, scientists have also observed modulation of behaviours on the individual level (Garnier et al., 2007). One of the most notable self-regulatory processes in biological social systems is the division of labour (DOL) (Sendova-Franks & Franks, 1999) by which a larger task is divided into a number of small subtasks and each subtask is performed by a separate individual or a group of individuals. Task-specialization is an integral part of DOL where a worker does not perform all tasks, but rather specializes in a set of tasks, according to its morphology, age, or chance (Bonabeau et al., 1999). DOL is also characterized by plasticity which means that the removal of one group of workers is quickly compensated for by other workers. Thus distribution of workers among different concurrent tasks keeps changing according to the environmental and internal conditions of a colony. In artificial social systems, like multi-agent or multi-robot systems, the term “division of labour” is often synonymous to “task-allocation” (Shen et al., 2001). In robotics, this is called multi-robot task allocation (MRTA) which is generally identified as the question of assigning tasks to appropriate robots considering changes in task-requirements, environment and the performance of other team members. The additional complexities of the distributed MRTA problem, over traditional MRTA, arise from the fact that robots have limited capabilities to sense, to communicate and to interact locally. In this chapter, we present this issue of DOL as a relevant self-regulatory process in both biological and artificial social systems. We have used the terms DOL and MRTA (or simply, task-allocation) interchangeably. Traditionally, task allocation in multi-agent systems has been dominated by explicit and self-organized task-allocation approaches. Explicit approaches, e.g. intentional cooperation (Parker, 2008), use of dynamic role assignment (Chaimowicz et al., 2002) and market-based bidding approach (Dias et al., 2006) are intuitive, comparatively straight forward to design and implement and can be analysed formally. However, these approaches typically works well only when the number of robots are small (≤ 10) (Lerman et al., 2006). On the other 19
The plancherel formula for group extensions II

© Gauthier-Villars (Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier), 1973, tous droits réservés. L’accès aux archives de la revue « Annales scientifiques de l’É. N.S. » (http://www. elsevier.com/locate/ansens) implique l’accord avec les conditions générales d’utilisation (http://www.numdam.org/legal.php). Toute utilisation commerciale ou impression systématique est constitutive d’une infraction pénale. Toute copie ou impression de ce fichier doit contenir la présente mention de copyright.
Globally Gridded Satellite Observations for Climate Studies

Geostationary satellites have provided routine, high temporal resolution Earth observations since the 1970s. Despite the long period of record, use of these data in climate studies has been limited for numerous reasons, among them that no central archive of geostationary data for all international satellites exists, full temporal and spatial resolution data are voluminous, and diverse calibration and navigation formats encumber the uniform processing needed for multisatellite climate studies. The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) set the stage for overcoming these issues by archiving a subset of the full-resolution geostationary data at ~10-km resolution at 3-hourly intervals since 1983. Recent efforts at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center to provide convenient access to these data include remapping the data to a standard map projection, recalibrating the data to optimize temporal homogeneity, extending the record of observations back to 1980, and reformatting the data for broad .
Isoperimetric constants and the first eigenvalue of a compact riemannian manifold

© Gauthier-Villars (Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier), 1975, tous droits réservés. L’accès aux archives de la revue « Annales scientifiques de l’É. N.S. » (http://www. elsevier.com/locate/ansens) implique l’accord avec les conditions générales d’utilisation (http://www.numdam.org/conditions). Toute utilisation commerciale ou impression systématique est constitutive d’une infraction pénale. Toute copie ou impression de ce fichier doit contenir la présente mention de copyright.
CONTAMINANTS SURVEY OF LA SAL VIEJA

Organochlorine, trace element, and petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants were examined in sediments from two hypersaline lakes comprising the La Sal Vieja complex in Willacy County, Texas, and from sediment and biota in a slightly brackish drain nearby. One of the lakes, East Lake, has been impacted by considerable oil and gas production, and this was reflected in moderately higher levels of most contaminants in sediments. Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons were detected at low levels in sediment samples, and high levels of chromium, copper, nickel, zinc, and breakdown products of organochlorine pesticides (up to 1.4 ppm wet weight DDE) were detected in fish samples from the Salt Drain nearby. The high DDE levels may pose a threat of eggshell thinning in fish eating birds. Periodic monitoring of heavy metal and DDE levels in fish is recommended.
Influenza Vaccines for the Future - ReadingSample

In this chapter, we highlight how recent advances in influenza epidemiology can inform strategies for disease control. Given the challenge of direct measurement, influenza epidemiology has benefited greatly from statistical inference from the analysis of large datasets regarding hospitalization, mortality, and outpatient visits associated with seasonal circulation of influenza viruses. These data have allowed comparison of the impact of influenza in various climates and the evaluation of the direct and indirect benefits of vaccination, the latter through the vaccination of “transmitter populations” such as school children, to achieve herd immunity. Moreover, the resolution of influenza epidemiology has undergone a leap to the molecular level due to the integration of new antigenic and viral genomic data with classical epidemiological indicators. Finally, the new data have led to an infusion of quantitative studies from the fields of evolutionary biology, population genetics, and mathematics. Molecular influenza epidemiology is providing deeper insight into temporal/spatial patterns of viruses, the important role of reassortment in generating genetic novelty, and global diffusion of virus variants – including the role of the tropics, as a source of new variants. Higher resolution, contemporary, and historic epidemiological data provide a more detailed picture of the effect of age and other host characteristics on outcomes, as well as better estimates of the transmissibility of pandemic and seasonal influenza viruses. New epidemiologic and virologic data from the current A/H1N1pdm 2009 pandemic improve our understanding of the emergence and establishment of new viral subtypes in L. Simonsen George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, Washington, DC, USA Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA C. Viboud and M.A. Miller (*) Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA e-mail: millermar@mail.nih. gov R.J. Taylor SAGE Analytica, LLC, Bethesda, MD, USA G. Del Giudice and R. Rappuoli (eds.), Influenza Vaccines for the Future, 2nd edition, Birkh€auser Advances in Infectious Diseases, DOI 10.1007/978-3-0346-0279-2_2, # Springer Basel AG 2011 27 human populations and their mortality and morbidity burden in the first years of circulation. Re-examination of observational studies of vaccine effectiveness in seniors is leading to reconsideration of seasonal and pandemic vaccine priorities, while mathematical modelers have developed tools to explore optimal strategies for mitigating on-going and future pandemics. The field of influenza epidemiology has rapidly progressed in the past decade and become truly multidisciplinary. Progress could be sustained in the next decade by further interdisciplinary studies between virology, evolutionary biology, immunology, and clinical outcomes.
SESAMOL ANTAGONIZES ROTENONE-INDUCED CELL DEATH IN SH-SY5Y NEURONAL CELLS

Objective: To investigate the neuroprotective effect of sesamol against rotenone-induced cell death in SH-SY5Y cells associated with Parkinsonism. Methods: SH-SY5Y cells were maintained in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium. After differentiation, the cells were incubated with rotenone (20 μM) and sesamol at different concentrations (10-100 μM). Cell viability was determined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide assay. The reactive oxygen species, mitochondrial membrane potential and nuclear morphology were determined by dichlorofluorescein diacetate, rhodamine 123 and 4’, 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole, respectively. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, activities of catalase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase and glutathione level were determined by standard assays. Results: Sesamol significantly increased the cell viability and decreased the rotenone-induced cell death in SH-SY5Y cells. Sesamol antagonized rotenone-induced reactive oxygen species generation, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and nuclear damage. Sesamol also decreased thiobarbituric acid reactive substances level, increased the activities of catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and increased the level of glutathione in rotenone-induced cells. Conclusion: The results obtained strongly indicate the promising neuroprotective role of sesamol against rotenone-induced death in SH-SY5Y cells.
Stock Market Literacy, Trust and Participation

This article studies the importance of stock market literacy and trust for stock ownership decisions. We find that these two distinct channels simultaneously explain not only the probability of participation, but, conditional on participation, also explain the share of investment in stocks. Once we account for stock market literacy, sociability is no longer significant for participation; what matters is literacy rather than sociability. Further, we observe that economic shocks and future expectations are key behavioral characteristics that explain a household’s decision to invest in stocks. However, upon participation, a larger set of behavioral characteristics explains the level of stock investment.
Redox Abnormalities as a Vulnerability Phenotype for Autism and Related Alternations in CNS Development

Abstract : Multiple studies have demonstrated that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have a more oxidized redox status than age-matched controls, and recent studies from project member Dr. S. Jill James (PI, Project 1) have demonstrated that such differences are found even in lymphoblastoid cell lines isolated from children with ASD. Project 2 uses mouse strains and CNS precursor cells with intrinsic differences in oxidative status to identify parameters that can be used to prospectively identify individuals with a more oxidized redox status and also to elucidate the cellular consequences of such a status for cells of the developing central nervous system. The first year's research has focused on identifying core parameters and vulnerabilities using CNS precursor cells that are known to have intrinsic differences in oxidative status despite being isolated from the same animals, thus focusing analysis on outcomes likely to transcend other strain differences. We have defined multiple parameters that are associated with cell-intrinsic differences in redox status (including glutathione status, ATP/ADP ratios, free Ca++ levels, and mitochondrial depolarization status and levels of bcl-2, gamma-glutamyl cysteinyl synthetase (the rate limiting enzyme in glutathione biosynthesis) and superoxide dismutase 1). Redox status is also predictive of vulnerability to tumor necrosis factor-alpha and glutamate, two physiological stressors elevated in cerebrospinal fluid of children with ASD.
Biodegradation of an Organophosphate Chemical Warfare Agent Simulant by Activated Sludge with Varying Solid Retention Times

Abstract : This study examined the fate of malathion, a surrogate compound for VX studies, in bench-scale sequencing batch bioreactors being operated under varied solid retention times (SRTs) to simulate the activated sludge process in wastewater treatment facilities. Results show that a constant influent of the malathion will largely be removed. However, the heterotrophic bacteria undergo a stress response which temporarily inhibits malathion removal, the extent of which increases with increasing SRTs. After this stress response takes place, the activated sludge is able to resume a high degree of malathion removal, even with increased influent concentration; however, this is done so at the expense of acceptable COD removal in the effluent, suggesting malathion may be toxic to the heterotrophic bacteria in activated sludge.
Testing for real interest rate convergence in European countries

The authors use cointegration tests that determine endogenously the regime shift to test for bilateral short-term and long-term real interest rate convergence in the European Monetary System in the 1979-93 period. The results of these tests provide strong evidence in favor of bilateral real interest rate convergence between Germany and several countries in the authors' sample, particularly for long-term real interest rates. This result carries the important policy implication that, in several European countries, monetary policy has lost some of its effectiveness as a stabilization policy tool. Copyright 1999 by Scottish Economic Society.
ARITHMETIC GEOMETRY: RATIONAL POINTS

Introduction 1 1. Conics, quaternion algebras and the Brauer group 2 1.1. Quaternion algebras 2 1.2. Conics 4 1.3. Central simple algebras and the Brauer group 5 1.4. Residue 7 1.5. Reciprocity 9 2. Brauer–Grothendieck group and the Brauer–Manin obstruction 11 2.1. The Hasse principle and weak approximation 11 2.2. Azumaya algebras and Brauer group of an algebraic variety 11 2.3. Brauer–Manin obstruction 14 3. Arithmetic of conic bundles 16 3.1. Standard smooth proper models 16 3.2. Conic bundles over number fields: main theorems and examples 20 3.3. Descent 21 3.4. Corollary of the Green–Tao–Ziegler theorem 23 3.5. Geometry of certain intersections of quadrics 26 References 29
Dynamic Planar Magnetic Reconnection Solutions for Incompressible Plasmas

The planar magnetic reconnection problem for viscous, resistive plasmas is addressed. We show that solutions can be developed by superposing transient nonlinear disturbances onto quiescent "background" fields. The disturbance fields are unrestricted in form, but the spatial part of the background field must satisfy ▽2K=-λK. This decomposition allows previous analytic reconnection solutions, based on one-dimensional disturbance fields of "plane wave" form, to be recovered as special cases. However, we point out that planar disturbance fields must be fully two-dimensional to avoid the pressure problem associated with analytic merging models, that is, to avoid unbounded current sheet pressures in the limit of small plasma resistivities. The details of the reconnection problem are then illustrated using cellular background field simulations in doubly periodic geometries. The flux pile-up rate is shown to saturate when the pressure of the current sheet exceeds the hydromagnetic pressure of the background field. Although the presaturation regime is well described by one-dimensional current sheet theory, the nonlinear postsaturation regime remains poorly understood. Preliminary evidence suggests that, although after saturation the early evolution of the field can be described by slow Sweet-Parker scalings, the first implosion no longer provides the bulk of the energy release.
Genesis of Pre–Hurricane Felix (2007). Part I: The Role of the Easterly Wave Critical Layer

Abstract The formation of pre–Hurricane Felix (2007) in a tropical easterly wave is examined in a two-part study using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with a high-resolution nested grid configuration that permits the representation of cloud system processes. The simulation commences during the wave stage of the precursor African easterly-wave disturbance. Here the simulated and observed developments are compared, while in Part II of the study various large-scale analyses, physical parameterizations, and initialization times are explored to document model sensitivities. In this first part the authors focus on the wave/vortex morphology, its interaction with the adjacent intertropical convergence zone complex, and the vorticity balance in the neighborhood of the developing storm. Analysis of the model simulation points to a bottom-up development process within the wave critical layer and supports the three new hypotheses of tropical cyclone formation proposed recently by Dunkerton, Montgome.
The Effects of Display Highlighting and Event History on Operator Decision Making in a National Missile Defense System Application.

Abstract : A proposed display for the National Missile Defense (NMD) task was developed to aid operator decision making. Subjects were required to monitor a simulated battle, consisting of launches of enemy missiles against the U.S., and counter-launches of defensive missiles against these incoming warheads. Defensive missiles were not perfect at destroying targeted enemy missiles, there was an estimated probability of . 20 that a defensive missile will miss its assigned target. The risk associated with the probabilistic outcomes was displayed to the operator as a distribution in part of the display. The counter-launches were accomplished by a tully automated system, with the human operator as a monitor. The subject controlled a pool of reserve missiles (which are limited in number), not included in the system automation, which were deployed when the subject determined that the threat called for such action. Subjects had to make risk- resource tradeoffs concerning the risk associated with the threat and the limited resources of the reserve missiles. Twenty military subjects saw 40, two minute scenarios, with two enemy launches of six missiles each. They were required to respond as to how many reserve missiles they wanted to withdraw at four times during each scenario.
Role of Glycation in Amyloid: Effect on the Aggregation Process and Cytotoxicity

Although the aggregation process of amyloidogenic proteins has been widely studied in vitro and many physiological factors have been identified, the molecular mecha‐ nisms underlying the formation of aggregates in vivo and under pathological conditions are still poorly understood. Post‐translational modifications are known to affect protein structure and function. Some of these modifications might affect proteins in detrimental ways and lead to their misfolding and accumulation. Reducing sugars play an important role in modifying proteins, forming advanced glycation end‐ products (AGEs) in a nonenzymatic process, called glycation. Recently, much attention has been devoted to the role played by glycation in stimulating amyloid aggregation and cellular toxicity. Proteins in amyloid deposits are often found glycated, suggest‐ ing a direct correlation between protein glycation and amyloidosis. AGE products increase in aging and are considered a marker for several diseases such as Alzheimer disease and diabetes. In addition to directly affecting the protein structure and function, AGEs also induce cellular toxicity. This chapter focuses on the molecular effects induced by glycation in the amyloid aggregation of several protein models. In particular, both the structural effects induced by glycation and their consequence on cellular toxicity will be extensively described.
IMPLEMENTATION AND VERIFICATION OF MISHIMA’S CHF DATA AT LOW FLOW AND ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE IN THE PLTEMP/ANL CODE

Mishima performed critical heat flux (CHF) tests at near-atmospheric pressure for water flowing in annular, rectangular, and round channels. The mass velocities (G) in these tests, which are representative of natural circulation flow in research reactors, ranged from 0 to 350 kg/m-s for down-flow and from 0 to 70 kg/m-s for up-flow. Mishima’s fit to his CHF data gives much smaller CHF values for G < ~350 kg/m-s than do the Mirshak and the Labuntsov correlations which are based on CHF test data for G > ~1500 kg/m-s. The present work investigates Mishima’s fit to his CHF data for rectangular channels and combines it with the Mirshak and the Labuntsov correlations valid for G > ~1500 kg/m-s, in order to provide CHF for G from 0 to ~1500 kg/m-s and above, for up-flow, down-flow, and for one-sided and two-sided heating. The combined set of CHF correlations was recently implemented in PLTEMP/ANL, a thermalhydraulics code for research reactors. The implementation was verified by PLTEMP/ANL calculations that agree with both Mishima’s and Mirshak’s CHF test data and reproduce the plot of CHF versus coolant velocity for an MTR-type 2 MW test reactor studied in the IAEA TECDOC233. The combined set of CHF correlations is compared with other correlations at the thermalhydraulic limits set by different reactor design criteria.
Molecular Diagnostic Testing on Post Mortem Inspection and Rulings on Bovine Tuberculosis — An Experience Report in Brazil

that mistakes can occur during rulings of suspected bovine tuberculosis lesions in cattle, particularly those presenting paucibacillary lesions. These mistakes cause a distortion in BTB estimates in slaughterhouses, with harmful consequences to the success of the Brazilian Tuberculosis Control Program (PNCEBT). The results point to the use of complementary molecular assays for rapid diagnoses of lesions situated in fre‐ quently BTB-affected carcass areas, thus minimizing mistakes in judging the disease in slaughterhouses. m-PCR was the most sensitive, rapid and specific method among the complementary methods tested in the present study when compared to conventional methods for BTB-diagnosis. It is, therefore, a promising alternative in disease surveillance to be used by the federal inspection service to contribute to the bovine tuberculosis control and eradica‐ tion program, for disease surveillance in slaughterhouses and for tracking remaining BTB foci