Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implementing Actuated Signal-Controlled Intersection Capacity Analysis with Pedestrians

For an actuated signalized intersection, pedestrian calls are likely to affect the effective greens serving the vehicle movements, which affect the capacity and delay of the intersection. However, the current procedure in the Highway Capacity Manual 2000 (HCM) for analyzing actuated signalized intersections treats pedestrian crossing and timing statically, with either pedestrian calls at all signal cycles or no pedestrians at all. In reality, pedestrian arrivals are random events with some cycles having more pedestrians than others and other cycles having no pedestrian call at all. This paper demonstrates that the current procedure can lead to erroneous results in capacity and delay estimations. A model is introduced to overcome the shortcomings in the current procedure. The model takes into account the stochastic nature of pedestrian crossings and their effects. The model computes the probability of having pedestrian calls in a cycle and the corresponding capacities and delays for traffic movements. An implementation framework was developed to help practitioners conduct capacity analyses using the model. The model's results on a semiactuated signal-controlled intersection were comparable with the results from the SimTraffic microsimulation model. The effects of pedestrians on intersection capacity and delay were analyzed using the proposed model. Depending on the pedestrian volume and traffic conditions, the current HCM procedure could produce significant error, especially when the pedestrian volume is low, because it does not consider the stochastic nature of pedestrian arrivals.
Comparison between the efficacy and safety of platelet‐rich plasma vs microdermabrasion in the treatment of striae distensae: clinical and histopathological study

The article entitled “Comparison between the efficacy and safety of platelet‐rich plasma vs microdermabrasion in the treatment of striae distensae: clinical and histopathological study” (Zeinab Abd El‐Samad Ibrahim, et al.) is very interesting but the methodology is not robust. Our mains comments concerned the count of the cells, the activation of the PRP and the method of assessment.
Output tracking of underactuated rotary inverted pendulum by nonlinear controller

A novel tracking control law is developed for underactuated nonminimum inverted pendulum on a rotor arm by a combinated application of nonlinear backstepping, differential flatness, and small gain theorem. It has been shown that through proper input transformation, the whole system can be modified to be weak minimum phase with the external subsystem being differentially flat, and be further modified into 2 exp-ISS subsystems. Simulation and experimental results for tracking a reference signal are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.
Dynamic voltage stability assessment of an electric power network using composite load models

Electric power network stability analysis requires that all system components are represented by their models. Usually, detailed data about system components such as generators, transformers and transmission lines are available. In this case accurate models can be derived from the network devices. However, corresponding data for individual loads are not always available, which makes the modelling of loads an important area of research studies. In this paper it is studied and analysed the effect of the composite load models in the dynamic voltage stability of an electric power network. The composite load models comprise residential, commercial and industrial loads. A severe contingency situation was simulated. The automatic voltage regulators of the generating units, the turbine speed governors, and the under load tap changers models were taken into account. The simulation results were obtained using the EUROSTAG software package. Finally, some conclusions that provide a better understanding of the dynamic voltage stability are pointed out.
Bifurcation from relative periodic solutions

Relative periodic solutions are ubiquitous in dynamical systems with continuous symmetry. Recently, Sandstede, Scheel and Wulff derived a center bundle theorem, reducing local bifurcation from relative periodic solutions to a finite-dimensional problem. Independently, Lamb and Melbourne showed how to systematically study local bifurcation from isolated periodic solutions with discrete spatiotemporal symmetries. In this paper, we show how the center bundle theorem, when combined with certain group theoretic results, reduces bifurcation from relative periodic solutions to bifurcation from isolated periodic solutions. In this way, we obtain a systematic approach to the study of local bifurcation from relative periodic solutions.
Real-time large vocabulary spontaneous speech recognition for spoken dialog systems

This paper describes the method for modifying the baseline speech recognition system to be suitable for a use in spoken dialog system with mixed initiative and natural user's input. We present three approaches for extending the recognition vocabulary to ensure the spoken dialog system is able to recognize all entities in the given domain. The colloquial text normalization method is proposed. The experiments performed on spontaneous speech corpus suggested that the proposed method is very important for languages where the formal written language and a common colloquial speech are very different. The overall word error rate was reduced by 16.7%.
Past and future of a century old Citrus tristeza virus collection: a California citrus germplasm tale

Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) isolates collected from citrus germplasm, dooryard and field trees in California from 1914 have been maintained in planta under quarantine in the Citrus Clonal Protection Program (CCPP), Riverside, California. This collection, therefore, represents populations of CTV isolates obtained over time and space in California. To determine CTV genetic diversity in this context, genotypes of CTV isolates from the CCPP collection were characterized using multiple molecular markers (MMM). Genotypes T30, VT, and T36 were found at high frequencies with T30 and T30+VT genotypes being the most abundant. The MMM analysis did not identify T3 and B165/T68 genotypes; however, biological and phylogenetic analysis suggested some relationships of CCPP CTV isolates with these two genotypes. Phylogenetic analysis of the CTV coat protein (CP) gene sequences classified the tested isolates into seven distinct clades. Five clades were in association with the standard CTV genotypes T30, T36, T3, VT, and B165/T68. The remaining two identified clades were not related to any standard CTV genotypes. Spatiotemporal analysis indicated a trend of reduced genotype and phylogenetic diversity as well as virulence from southern California (SC) at early (1907–1957) in comparison to that of central California (CC) isolates collected from later (1957–2009) time periods. CTV biological characterization also indicated a reduced number and less virulent stem pitting (SP) CTV isolates compared to seedling yellows isolates introduced to California. This data provides a historical insight of the introduction, movement, and genetic diversity of CTV in California and provides genetic and biological information useful for CTV quarantine, eradication, and disease management strategies such as CTV-SP cross protection.
Altered glycosylation of MUC1 influences its association with CIN85: the role of this novel complex in cancer cell invasion and migration

MUC1 is a transmembrane glycoprotein abnormally expressed in human adenocarcinomas. The extracellular domain of MUC1 contains a variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) region that is extensively O-glycosylated in normal epithelia and underglycosylated in tumor cells. This change in posttranslational modification of MUC1 leads to changes in its normal functions including, we hypothesized, its interaction with other molecules. We identified CIN85, an adaptor protein involved in multiple cellular processes including signal transduction, cytoskeletal remodeling and cancer cell invasion, as one of several proteins that associate with MUC1 in tumor cells. CIN85 associates with both the cytosolic tail and the extracellular VNTR of MUC1. Co-immunoprecipitation and confocal immunofluorescence confirmed that MUC1 and CIN85 co-localize primarily at the plasma membrane but the complex can be found also in the cytosol and on the cytoskeleton. MUC1 and CIN85 are both over-expressed in early as well as advanced clinical stages of breast cancer and co-localize on invadopodia-like structures implicated in cell invasion. siRNA-mediated silencing of CIN85 and/or MUC1 revealed that MUC1 enhances CIN85-dependent breast cancer cell migration and invasion in vitro. However, ectopic expression of MUC1 enhances the motility induced by CIN85. When tested in vivo in a tumor metastasis model of B16 melanoma, mice injected with CIN85-depleted melanoma cells exhibited few or no lung metastasis and, similarly to the in vitro results, overexpression of MUC1 recovered the shCIN85-reduced metastatic process. Our findings implicate this newly identified CIN85/MUC1 complex associated with invadopodia-related molecules in promoting the invasive and metastatic potential of breast cancer.
Nothing more permanent than change: Or how to understand continuity in technological development

The calls for change are all around us. Modern society would need to dramatically shift to other production methods, other approaches to nature and environment, and new, improved regulations for economic activities. This paper does not challenge this need for more elegant production methods nor does it aim to criticize the importance of sustainability. What I will do, however, is question the concept of changing itself. More often than not, a need for change is accompanied with a claim of a paradigm shift actually already happening. I will argue that it is theoretically impossible to know whether one experiences a shift or not, as one would need to see in the future to actually proof the shift. With several examples from historical analysis, on management of river systems in the Netherlands and irrigation development in the Netherlands East Indies, this argument is sustained. It will become clear that pointing to actual shifts is not that straightforward, even when we know the outcome of the shift. There are clear changes to be detected in history, but when was the shift? Analysis of shifts will prove to be at least partly a function of the perceptions of the observer, the amount of time between the shift under study and the observer, and the length of the time frame applied in the analysis. Now being able to locate actual shifts may hamper, or at least leads to questions, about management of shifts in modern times.
Structure‐based finite strain modelling of the human left ventricle in diastole

Finite strain analyses of the left ventricle provide important information on heart function and have the potential to provide insights into the biomechanics of myocardial contractility in health and disease. Systolic dysfunction is the most common cause of heart failure; however, abnormalities of diastolic function also contribute to heart failure, and are associated with conditions including left ventricular hypertrophy and diabetes. The clinical significance of diastolic abnormalities is less well understood than systolic dysfunction, and specific treatments are presently lacking. To obtain qualitative and quantitative information on heart function in diastole, we develop a three‐dimensional computational model of the human left ventricle that is derived from noninvasive imaging data. This anatomically realistic model has a rule‐based fibre structure and a structure‐based constitutive model. We investigate the sensitivity of this comprehensive model to small changes in the constitutive parameters and to changes in the fibre distribution. We make extensive comparisons between this model and similar models that employ different constitutive models, and we demonstrate qualitative and quantitative differences in stress and strain distributions for the different constitutive models. We also provide an initial validation of our model through comparisons to experimental data on stress and strain distributions in the left ventricle. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Long-term streamflow forecasting using SWAT through the integration of the random forests precipitation generator: case study of Danjiangkou Reservoir

Long-term streamflow forecasting is of great significance to the optimal management of water resources. However, the forecast lead time of long-term streamflow forecasting is relatively long and the forecasted precipitation within the forecast lead time has inherent uncertainty, so long-term streamflow forecasting has major challenges. In this paper, a hybrid forecasting model is developed to improve accuracy of long-term streamflow forecasting by combining random forests (RF) and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The RF model is used to forecast monthly precipitation which is further downscaled to a daily dataset according to the hydrological similarity principle for use in the SWAT model of the Danjiangkou Reservoir basin, China. Performance of this hybrid model is compared to that of seasonal autoregressive (SAR (P)) model. Results show the RF precipitation generator yields accurate predictions at the monthly scale and the hybrid model produces acceptable streamflow series in long-term forecasting cases. In addition, the comparison shows that in the Danjiangkou Reservoir basin, the hybrid model performs better than the SAR (P) model, with average Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) values of 0.94 and 0.51, which is better when it is closer to 1. This study provides a method of improving accuracy of long-term streamflow forecasting.
On the Design of Double Serially Concatenated Codes with an Outer Repetition Code

Motivated by the recent discovery that repeat-accumulate-accumulate (RAA) codes with a repetition factor of three or larger are asymptotically good, we focus on the design of double-serially concatenated codes (DSCCs) with an outer repetition code. The main design goal is to obtain rate-1/2 codes with minimum distance approaching the Gilbert-Varshamov bound (GVB), while still maintaining a good convergence threshold with iterative decoding. To this end, the “accumulate” codes, used as middle and inner codes in RAA codes, are replaced with higher memory, rate-1 convolutional codes. We find that distance growth rates close to the GVB can be achieved in a DSCC with code memories as small as two or three. EXIT charts are used to design DSCCs with good convergence thresholds and distance growth properties. Finally, these codes are compared to the RAAA code and a punctured RAA code with a repetition factor of three, both of which exhibit linear distance growth with block length.
An analysis on attacker actions in fingerprint-copy attack in source camera identification

Multimedia forensics deals with the analysis of multimedia data to gather information on their origin and authenticity through the use of specific tools. At this point an important question arises: how much reliable are these algorithms? In this work we have considered the technique presented in [1] where it is shown how source camera identification can be attacked. In particular, the problem investigated concerns the situation when an adversary estimates the sensor fingerprint from a set of images belonging to the person he wants to frame and superimposes it onto an image acquired by a different camera to charge the innocent victim as the author of that photo. In [1], a countermeasure against such attack, named Triangle Test, is introduced. In this paper we have analyzed if a more sophisticated action of the attacker can invalidate such countermeasure. Experimental results are provided to prove how hacker's action could be improved.
Degrees of freedom of the MIMO interference channel with cooperation and cognition

In this paper, we explore the benefits, in the sense of total (sum rate) degrees of freedom (DOF), of cooperation and cognitive message sharing for a two-user multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) Gaussian interference channel with M<sub>1</sub>, M<sub>2</sub> antennas at transmitters and N<sub>1</sub>, N<sub>2</sub> antennas at receivers. For the case of cooperation (including cooperation at transmitters only, at receivers only, and at transmitters as well as receivers), the DOF is min{M<sub>1</sub> + M<sub>2</sub>,N<sub>1</sub> + N<sub>2</sub>, max(M<sub>1</sub>,N<sub>2</sub>), max(M<sub>2</sub>,N<sub>1</sub>)}, which is the same as the DOF of the channel without cooperation. For the case of cognitive message sharing, the DOF is min{M<sub>1</sub>+ M<sub>2</sub>,N<sub>1</sub>+N<sub>2</sub>, (1-1<sub>T2</sub>)((1-1<sub>R2</sub>)max(M<sub>1</sub>,N<sub>2</sub>)+1<sub>R2</sub>(M<sub>1</sub>+N<sub>2</sub>))+ 1<sub>T2</sub>(M<sub>1</sub> + M<sub>2</sub>), (1 - 1<sub>T1</sub>)((1 - 1<sub>R1</sub>)max(M<sub>2</sub>,N<sub>1</sub>) + 1<sub>R1</sub>(M<sub>2</sub> + N<sub>1</sub>)) + 1<sub>T1</sub>(M<sub>1</sub> + M<sub>2</sub>)} where 1<sub>Ti</sub> = 1 (0) when transmitter i is (is not) a cognitive transmitter and 1<sub>Ri</sub> is defined in the same fashion. Our results show that while both techniques may increase the sum rate capacity of the MIMO interference channel, only cognitive message sharing can increase the DOF. We also find that it may be more beneficial for a user to have a cognitive transmitter than to have a cognitive receiver.
A Personalization Service for Curriculum Planning

In this work we describe a “semantic personalization” web service for curriculum planning. Based on a semantic annotation of a set of courses, provided by the University of Hannover, reasoning about actions and change —in particular classical planning— are exploited for creating personalized curricula, i.e. for selecting and sequencing a set of courses which will allow a student to achieve her learning goal. The specific student’s context is taken into account during the process: students with different initial knowledge will be suggested different solutions. The Curriculum Planning Service has been integrated as a new plug-and-play personalization service in the Personal Reader framework.
Abnormal Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Exon IX Promoter Methylation, Protein, and mRNA Levels in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) exon IX promoter methylation levels, serum BDNF protein levels, and serum mRNA levels were investigated in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls. Over two years, 51 patients with MDD and 62 healthy controls were recruited. Peripheral blood was drawn from all participants to analyze the BDNF exon IX promoter methylation levels as well as serum BDNF protein and mRNA levels, at baseline and after four weeks of antidepressant treatment. Methylation sequential analysis showed that patients with MDD (n = 39) had a higher methylation level at CpG site 217 and lower methylation levels at CpG site 327 and CpG site 362. Drug responders (n = 25) had a higher methylation level at CpG site 24 and CpG site 324 than the non-responders (n = 11). Patients with MDD had a lower serum BDNF protein and mRNA levels than the healthy controls. In conclusion, these results showed that BDNF exon IX promoter methylation levels, serum BDNF protein level, and serum BDNF mRNA level could contribute to the pathophysiology of a major depressive disorder.
Nutrition and immunity: the effects of the combination of arginine and tryptophan on growth performance, serum parameters and immune response in broiler chickens challenged with infectious bursal disease vaccine

To explore the effects of the combination of tryptophan (Trp) and arginine (Arg) on growth performance, serum parameters and immune response of broiler chickens challenged with intermediate plus strain of infectious bursal disease virus vaccine, an in vivo experiment was conducted. A corn–soybean meal-based diet containing different levels of Arg and Trp was used. Cobb500 male broiler chickens from 0 to 49 days of age were subjected to a diet supplemented with the combination of Trp and Arg. Growth performance parameters and serum parameters were measured at 27 and 49 days of age. To evaluate the immunomodulatory effects of the combination of Trp and Arg on the challenged chickens, we measured the serum levels of interferon-α, interferon-γ and immunoglobulin G at 27, 35, 42, and 49 days of age. The results showed that the three evaluated immune system parameters including interferon-α, interferon-γ and immunoglobulin G were significantly enhanced after treatment. This enhancement resulted in the recovery of infectious bursal disease virus-infected chickens compared with controls as confirmed by histopathological examinations. Moreover, serum parameters such as albumin and total protein increased, whereas the treatment decreased (P<0.05) the feed:gain ratio, aspartate amino-transferase, alkaline phosphatase, lactic dehydrogenase, triglyceride and cholesterol. These findings suggest that the combination of Arg and Trp has a regulatory effect on growth performance. Moreover, it modulates the systemic immune response against infectious bursal disease.
Meta-analysis of the association between appendiceal orifice inflammation and appendectomy and ulcerative colitis.

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate the relationship between appendiceal orifice inflammation (AOI) and appendectomy and ulcerative colitis (UC) by a meta-analysis. METHODS Databases were thoroughly searched for studies on AOI and UC up to January 2016. Three comparisons were performed: a) whether the previous appendectomy was a risk factor of UC; b) influence of appendectomy on UC courses; c) influence of AOI on UC severity. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were the effects sizes. The merging of results and publication bias assessment were performed by using RevMan 5.3. Sensitivity analysis was conducted using Stata 12.0. RESULTS Nineteen studies were selected in the present study. Results of comparison I showed that appendectomy was a protective factor of UC (OR = 0.44; 95% CI [0.30, 0.64]). Comparison II indicated appendectomy had no significant influence in the courses of UC (proctitis: OR = 1.03, 95% CI [0.74, 1.42]; left-sided colitis: OR = 1.01, 95% CI [0.73, 1.39]; pancolitis: OR = 0.92, 95% CI [0.59, 1.43]; colectomy: OR = 1.38, 95% CI [0.62, 3.04]). Comparison III indicated UC combined with AOI did not affect the courses of UC (proctitis: OR = 1.15, 95% CI [0.67, 1.98]; left-sided colitis: OR = 1.14, 95% CI [0.24, 5.42]; colectomy: OR = 0.36, 95% CI [0.10, 1.23]). Sensitivity analysis confirmed the robust of the results in the present study. CONCLUSION In conclusion, this meta-analysis indicated appendectomy can reduce the risk of UC. But appendectomy or AOI had no influence on the severity of the disease and the effect of surgical treatment.