Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microbial Contamination in the Groundwater of Aligarh City

Aligarh city is a part of the central Ganga Plain. The Quaternary alluvium in the area has been deposited on a faulted and eroded surface of upper Vindhyan shale which comprises sand, silt and clay with occasional calcrete beds. There are three levels of aquifer in the alluvium of the area. The top aquifer lies at a depth of 9-66 m and is highly vulnerable to microbial and chemical pollution. The present paper evaluates the microbial contamination of groundwater, which was analysed using water samples from shallow (hand pumps) and deep aquifers (tube wells) at different sites during the summer season. Samples were examined for total aerobic heterotrophic bacterial load by the plate count method and the multiple tube dilution method for determining the most probable number (MPN) index of total coliform and faecal coliform bacteria. Microbiological analysis showed that microbial (heterotrophic bacterial) contamination in groundwater was maximum in wells with hand pumps (private) and least in tubewell water. Total coliform and faecal coliform contamination are also found comparatively more in wells with hand pumps than tubewells. It indicated that those who drink groundwater from hand pump (India Mark) may be at increased risk of infection and disease from pathogenic bacteria. The level of contamination is expected to increase in the rainy season. Immediate attention is hence needed to monitor all public drinking water systems for total coliform and faecal coliform contaminations and to assess the pathogenic potential of microbial contaminants.
Denotational Semantics of Object Specification Within an Arbitrary Temporal Logic Institution

From an arbitrary temporal logic institution we show how to set-up the corresponding institution of objects. The main properties of the resulting institution are studied and used in establishing the denotational, categorial semantics of several basic object specification constructs, namely aggregation (parallel composition), interconnection, abstraction (interfacing) and monotonic specialization. An isomorphism is established between the category of theories and the category of objects, as a corollary of the Galois correspondence between these concrete categories. The special case of linear temporal logic is analysed in detail in order to show that categorial products do reflect interleaving, and reducts may lead to internal non-determinism.
ECCE1: The first of a series of anthropomimetic musculoskeletal upper torsos

The human body was not designed by engineers and the way in which it is built poses enormous control problems. Its complexity challenges the ability of classical control theory to explain human movement as well as the development of human motor skills. It is our working hypothesis that the engineering paradigm for building robots places severe limitations on the kinds of interactions such robots can engage in, on the knowledge they can acquire of their environment, and therefore on the nature of their cognitive engagement with the environment. This paper describes the design of an anthropomimetic humanoid upper torso, ECCE1, built in the context of the ECCEROBOT project. The goal of the project is to use this platform to test hypotheses about human motion as well as to compare its performance with that of humans, whether at the mechanical, behavioural or cognitive level.
Failure by Design: Influence of the RTOS Interface on Memory Fault Resilience

Soft errors are emerging with the ongoing reduction of structure sizes in current and future hardware designs. This problematic is generally tackled by employing fault detection or tolerance measures from an applications’ point of view. At the same time, research commences to harden the operating system, often considered as remaining single point of failure. Certainly, these measures can effectively treat the symptoms of hardware faults. However, we argue that the operating system design per se can offer an intrinsic resilience against errors. Dynamic operating system designs, often resembling Unix-like interfaces, are obliged to cope with pointers and list-based data structures to provide the demanded flexibility. In contrast, especially in the domain of embedded systems this flexibility is often not needed. Here, static system designs can be deployed, which allow to avoid error-prone pointer-based memory operations. We believe, that a fully static system design can enhance the resilience against memory errors solely by reduced memory consumption and inherently more robust data structures. This paper studies the influences of memory faults on both, a dynamic and a fully static embedded operating system. Extensive injection campaigns, covering the entire fault space within the kernel data structures, will show that even when applying hardware-based fault detection mechanisms to a dynamic kernel, a static kernel design is still more than 75 percent less susceptible to silent data corruptions.
Casting the Net: A Multimodal Network Perspective on Knowledge Management

Recent information systems research has challenged the tendency of researchers to focus upon single information system (Vertegaal 2003) or upon individuals simply as users of those systems (Lamb and Kling 2003). Responding to these critiques, this paper forwards a new paradigm through which to study knowledge management: the multimodal knowledge network. Drawing heavily upon the field of social network research, we argue that the way in which multiple individuals interact with one another and with multiple information management systems will have significant implications for organizational knowledge sharing outcomes. In this study, we conduct a comparative case study through which to begin building a theory of multimodal knowledge networks. We study five health care teams in a large health maintenance organization and find that, although these teams have identical portfolios of information management systems and a similar complement of employees, each team configures its knowledge resources differently to complete similar tasks. We find that the structures that result from these multiple interpersonal and human–systems interactions have implications on knowledge outcomes for the network. We develop propositions as a result of this analysis and outline directions for future research.
Universally maximum flow with piecewise‐constant capacities

A maximum flow over time generalizes standard maximum flow by introducing a time component. The object is to send as much flow from source to sink in T time units as possible, where capacities are interpreted as an upper bound on the rate of flow entering an arc. A related problem is the universally maximum flow, which is to send a flow from source to sink that maximizes the amount of flow arriving at the sink by time t simultaneously for all t ≤ T. We consider a further generalization of this problem that allows arc and node capacities to change over time. In particular, given a network with m arcs and n nodes, arc and node capacities that are piecewise constant functions of time with at most k breakpoints and a time bound T, we show how to compute a flow that maximizes the amount of flow reaching the sink in all time intervals (0, t] simultaneously for all 0 < t ≤ T, in O(k2mn log (kn2/m)) time. The best previous algorithm requires O(nk) maximum‐flow computations on a network with m + n)k arcs and nk nodes. Our algorithm improves on this by a factor of O(nk). © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
“Can Someone as Young as You Really

Background: Research show that fibromyalgia has low credibility in healthcare, leading to poor treatment, lack of knowledge and disinterest. Therefore, people with fibromyalgia feel frustration, fear, anxiety and disappointment. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of people with fibromyalgia in their encounters with healthcare personnel in Sweden. Method: A cross-sectional design, where 409 people with fibromyalgia answered an anonymous online patient-reported experience measure, developed specific for the study, with six closed questions and one open-ended question. Descriptive statistics were analysed by response frequencies. Correlation analysis were performed between demographic and clinical variables with the answers from the closed questions. Free-text answers were analysed with content analysis. Results: A third experienced the treatment as bad (34%) and that they were not being taken seriously (30.5%). Almost half (47%) always or mostly felt fear of seeking healthcare related to fibromyalgia and that the health care personnel did not understand their diagnosis (46%). The majority (54%) experienced that the health care personnel did not understand how fibromyalgia affected them or how they could help them. The findings were confirmed in the free-text answers that were categorized into: Scepticism and disregard, Ignorance and disinterest and Professionalism and empathy. There were positive significant correlations between age and five of the questions ( q ¼ .105–.181, p < .05–p < .01), indicating that lower age is correlated with a worse experience. Furthermore, the duration of fibromyalgia showed a significant correlation with feeling afraid of seeking healthcare because of fibromyalgia ( q ¼ .144, p < .01), the shorter duration, the greater was the fear of seeking healthcare. Conclusion: As a third of patients with fibromyalgia had bad experiences with healthcare, especially younger patients, knowledge about fibromyalgia needs to be increased and the patients should be taken seriously and treated respectfully, as well as given adequate support.
[Proximal femoral intramedullary nail versus DHS plate for the treatment of intertrochanteric fractures. A prospective analysis].

OBJECTIVE To show that patients with intertrochanteric fractures treated with a proximal femoral nail have a better postoperative course than those treated with a DHS plate (dynamic hip screw). METHODS Patients with a Boyd & Griffin type II intertrochanteric fracture were randomly divided into two groups: a group of patients treated with a PFN and another one treated with a DHS plate. All patients were assessed at 2, 4, 8 and 16 weeks using the Harris scale and the visual analog scale pre- and postoperatively, as well as the operative time, incision size, intraoperative bleeding, onset of partial and/or total weight bearing, healing time, time to attain prior physical activity level, and radiographic result. RESULTS 32 patients met our criteria. The variables that had a significant reduction were: incision, operative time, postoperative pain according to the visual analog scale, onset of mobility, partial weight bearing and pain at 2 weeks. CONCLUSIONS The proximal femoral nail has better short-term outcomes than the DHS plate; however, in the medium term both implants have the same outcomes.
Subretinal electronic chips allow blind patients to read letters and combine them to words

A light-sensitive, externally powered microchip was surgically implanted subretinally near the macular region of volunteers blind from hereditary retinal dystrophy. The implant contains an array of 1500 active microphotodiodes (‘chip’), each with its own amplifier and local stimulation electrode. At the implant's tip, another array of 16 wire-connected electrodes allows light-independent direct stimulation and testing of the neuron–electrode interface. Visual scenes are projected naturally through the eye's lens onto the chip under the transparent retina. The chip generates a corresponding pattern of 38 × 40 pixels, each releasing light-intensity-dependent electric stimulation pulses. Subsequently, three previously blind persons could locate bright objects on a dark table, two of whom could discern grating patterns. One of these patients was able to correctly describe and name objects like a fork or knife on a table, geometric patterns, different kinds of fruit and discern shades of grey with only 15 per cent contrast. Without a training period, the regained visual functions enabled him to localize and approach persons in a room freely and to read large letters as complete words after several years of blindness. These results demonstrate for the first time that subretinal micro-electrode arrays with 1500 photodiodes can create detailed meaningful visual perception in previously blind individuals.
Quantification of dyspnoea using descriptors: development and initial testing of the Dyspnoea-12

Rationale: Dyspnoea is a debilitating and distressing symptom that is reflected in different verbal descriptors. Evidence suggests that dyspnoea, like pain perception, consists of sensory quality and affective components. The objective of this study was to develop an instrument that measures overall dyspnoea severity using descriptors that reflect its different aspects. Methods: 81 dyspnoea descriptors were administered to 123 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 129 with interstitial lung disease and 106 with chronic heart failure. These were reduced to 34 items using hierarchical methods. Rasch analysis informed decisions regarding further item removal and fit to the unidimensional model. Principal component analysis (PCA) explored the underlying structure of the final item set. Validity and reliability of the new instrument were further assessed in a separate group of 53 patients with COPD. Results: After removal of items with hierarchical methods (n = 47) and items that failed to fit the Rasch model (n = 22), 12 were retained. The “Dyspnoea-12” had good internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.9) and fit to the Rasch model (χ2 p = 0.08). Items patterned into two groups called “physical”(n = 7) and “affective”(n = 5). In the separate validation study, Dyspnoea-12 correlated with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (anxiety r = 0.51; depression r = 0.44, p<0.001, respectively), 6-minute walk distance (r = −0.38, p<0.01) and MRC (Medical Research Council) grade (r = 0.48, p<0.01), and had good stability over time (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.9, p<0.001). Conclusion: Dyspnoea-12 fulfills modern psychometric requirements for measurement. It provides a global score of breathlessness severity that incorporates both “physical” and “affective” aspects, and can measure dyspnoea in a variety of diseases.
Curriculum design and methodologies for security requirements analysis

Lack of security is one of the most widespread problems affecting information systems. Security breaches at companies are reported almost everyday and users of computer systems are busy updating security of their computer system against vulnerabilities. While some of these problems are caused by human errors and faults of physical devices but the majority of them are due to the defects in software systems. The best way to reduce them is to find and fix them in an early stage of the software development, especially in the requirements elicitation and analysis phases. In this paper, we will present how we designed a security requirements analysis course to address this issue. We will also present security requirements elicitation methodologies based on the agentand goal-oriented requirements analysis methodologies of KAOS and i*.
SubtiList: a relational database for the Bacillus subtilis genome.

In the framework of the international collaborative project aiming to sequence the whole Bacillus subtilis chromosome, we have created a relational database for managing and analysing information associated with the molecular genetics of this bacterium: SubtiList. It allows recovery of non-redundant DNA sequences of the B. subtilis genome, as well as related information, i.e. genes, proteins, etc. A logical structure has been designed with appropriate links between the different objects, and a set of procedures has been implemented for data updating and management. The database is organized around a core constituted by all known contigs of B. subtilis, i.e. sets of non-redundant sequences created from original entries in the EMBL data library. A user-friendly interface has been developed to make the database easy to consult. Sequence analysis tools have been integrated into the database, such as a program for rapid similarity searching of protein data banks, and a powerful DNA pattern searching program. Thanks to the consistency of SubtiList, we have performed a codon usage analysis by Factorial Correspondence Analysis, and a study of the distribution of the isoelectric points of known proteins of B. subtilis. The SubtiList database is available through anonymous ftp (address 'ftp.pasteur.fr' or IP number 157.99.64.12, directory '/pub/GenomeDB/SubtiList').
A self-normalized weighted bit-flipping decoding algorithm for LDPC codes

A novel self-normalized weighted bit-flipping (SNWBF) decoding algorithm for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes is proposed. Compared to the best known weighted bit-flipping decoding, the SNWBF algorithm converges significantly faster but with little performance penalty. For decoding of LDPC codes, the proposed SNWBF algorithm considers not only the reliability of the neighboring check nodes, but also the reliability of each variable node. Compared to the IMWBF algorithm, the proposed algorithm does not require multiplicative normalization and performs even better.
A Better N-Best List: Practical Determinization of Weighted Finite Tree Automata

Ranked lists of output trees from syntactic statistical NLP applications frequently contain multiple repeated entries. This redundancy leads to misrepresentation of tree weight and reduced information for debugging and tuning purposes. It is chie ﬂ y due to nondeterminism in the weighted automata that produce the re-sults. We introduce an algorithm that de-terminizes such automata while preserving proper weights, returning the sum of the weight of all multiply derived trees. We also demonstrate our algorithm’s effectiveness on two large-scale tasks.
Kinematic Analysis Of Hurdles Clearance Techniques And The First Inter-Hurdle Stride Over 110-Metre Hurdles: Comparisons Between Specialists And Decathletes

Background: Performances in the 110-metre hurdles sprint differ for Elite Hurdles Specialists (EHS) and Elite Decathletes (ED), possibly resulting in technical differences. This study aims to compare the kinematics of hurdle clearance and the �rst stride inter-hurdles of EHS and ED. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study involving twenty male athletes volunteered for the investigation (10 male EHS, and 10 male ED). Each athlete had previously achieved a 110m hurdles in a real competitive practice situation, and the kinematic parameters were determined by using kinematic analysis. The indices of spatial and temporal interaction in the support phase, as well as the angular parameters of motion and height of the body center of mass (CM) for various postures, were determined. Results: EHS were characterized by faster hurdle crossing (p < 0.01), shorter stride length over the hurdle (p < 0.05), and a shorter support phase in the �rst stride post-hurdle (p < 0.01). The CM path of ED was higher than that of EHS (p < 0.01). EHS attack the hurdle with the lead leg knee signi�cantly more �exed (p < 0.001) and after crossing the hurdle, regain contact with the ground with the lead leg more �exed at the hip level (p < 0.01), the trunk more inclined forward (p < 0.01), and a relatively smaller positioning angle of the supporting leg (p < 0.05). Conclusions: EHS were distinguished by maintaining e�cient sprinting mechanics over the hurdles, enabling them to develop optimal velocity between hurdles. This was re�ected in both a shorter impulse time and a considerable reduction of braking forces at the touchdown. In addition, EHS showed a more �uid and quicker resumption of optimal speed between hurdles, resulting in minimal loss of speed and superior performance.
Some statistical issues in the comparison of speech recognition algorithms

The authors present two simple tests for deciding whether the difference in error rates between two algorithms tested on the same data set is statistically significant. The first (McNemar's test) requires the errors made by an algorithm to be independent events and is found to be most appropriate for isolated-word algorithms. The second (a matched-pairs test) can be used even when errors are not independent events and is more appropriate for connected speech. <<ETX>>
Mathematical Modeling

Explanations of human behavior are most often presented in a verbal form as theories. Psychologists can also harness the power and precision of mathematics by explaining behavior quantitatively. This chapter introduces the reader to how this is done and the advantages of doing so. It begins by contrasting mathematical modeling with hypothesis testing to highlight how the two methods of knowledge acquisition differ. The many styles of modeling are then surveyed, along with their advantages and disadvantages. This is followed by an in-depth example of how to create a mathematical model and fit it to experimental data. Issues in evaluating models are discussed, including a survey of quantitative methods of model selection. Particular attention is paid to the concept of generalizability and the trade-off of model fit with model complexity. The chapter closes by describing some of the challenges for the discipline in the years ahead.
A comparison of pregnancy outcomes in Ghanaian women with varying dietary diversity: a prospective cohort study protocol

Introduction Poor dietary intake during pregnancy can have negative repercussions on the mother and fetus. This study therefore aims to explore the dietary diversity (DD) of pregnant women and its associations with pregnancy outcomes among women in Northern Ghana. The main outcome variables to be measured are gestational weight gain and birth weight. Methods and analysis A prospective cohort study design will be used and 600 pregnant women in their first trimester will be systematically recruited at health facilities and followed until delivery. In three follow-up visits after recruitment, information on sociodemographic and general characteristics, physical activity (International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) short form, dietary intake (24-hour food recall), anthropometry and pregnancy outcomes will be collected. DD will be measured three times using the minimum DD-women (MDD-W) indicator and the mean of the three values overall will be used to determine low (<5 food groups) and high (≥5 food groups) DD. Data will be analysed using SPSS. Comparisons between groups (categorical data) will be made using the χ2 test for proportions, and t-tests and ANOVA will be performed on continuous variables. Regression analysis will be used to identify independent outcome predictors while controlling for possible confounding factors. The results may help to identify differences in DD between healthy and unhealthy pregnancy outcomes. Ethics and dissemination The study protocol has been approved by the ethics committee of Tehran University of Medical Sciences and the ethical review committee of the Tamale Teaching Hospital. Written informed consent will be obtained from all subjects. The results will be published in due course.