Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Logic for Coalitions with Bounded Resources

Recent work on Alternating-Time Temporal Logic and Coalition Logic has allowed the expression of many interesting properties of coalitions and strategies. However there is no natural way of expressing resource requirements in these logics. This paper presents a Resource-Bounded Coalition Logic (RBCL) which has explicit representation of resource bounds in the language, and gives a complete and sound axiomatisation of RBCL.
Physically informed car engine sound synthesis for virtual and augmented environments

The richness of crossmodal feedback in car driving makes it an engaging, complex, yet “natural” activity. Audition plays an important role, as the engine sound, perceived in the cabin, conveys relevant cues about the vehicle motion. In this paper, we introduce a procedural and physically informed model for synthetic combustion engine sound, as an effective, flexible and computationally efficient alternative to sample-based and analysis/resynthesis approaches. The sound model, currently being developed as Max/MSP external, has been integrated in GeneCars, a driving simulator environment for industrial sound design, and SkAT Studio, a demonstration framework for the rapid creation of audio processing workflows.
Food Finding Test without Deprivation: A Sensorial Paradigm Sensitive to Sex, Genotype, and Isolation Shows Signatures of Derangements in Old Mice with Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology and Normal Aging

The Food Finding Test (FFT) olfactory paradigm without overnight food deprivation examined olfaction in aged (16-months-old) animals. Ethograms of three goal-directed behaviors towards hidden food (sniffing, finding and eating) elicited in male and female 3xTg-AD mice for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and their age-matched C57BL/6 wild-type counterparts with normal aging were meticulously analyzed with the support of video recordings. The new FFT protocol elicited longer ethograms than previously reported with the standard deprivation protocol. However, it was sensitive when identifying genotype- and sex-dependent olfactory signatures for the temporal patterns of slow sniffing, finding, and eating in AD and males, but it had a striking consistency in females. The impact of forced social isolation was studied and it was found to exert sex-dependent modifications of the ethogram, mostly in males. Still, in both sexes, a functional derangement was detected since the internal correlations among the behaviors decreased or were lost under isolated conditions. In conclusion, the new paradigm without overnight deprivation was sensitive to sex (males), genotype (AD), and social context (isolation-dependent changes) in its ethogram and functional correlation. At the translational level, it is a warning about the impact of isolation in the advanced stages of the disease, paying notable attention to the male sex.
Interest Points Detection in Color Images

This paper presents a new interest point detector for color images. It is based on a non linear filtering of the image which preserves edges, and on the use of a color point detector based on the Harris detector. We present how does interest points detectors work to justify the use of this filtering. We compare it with the Harris detector under the criteria of repeatibility, information content and localization accuracy.
Speed up method for neural network learning by using GPGPU

Neural network is a mathematical models for machine learning methods. This model apply to the many types of classification problem. And recently, many applications with neural network are required to process a big data in real time. In this paper, we discuss how to make the processing time of the neural network learning faster by using GPU. GPGPU is a technique by which GPUs are used for a general computation approach. GPU is a dedicated circuit to draw the graphics, so it has a characteristic in which many simple arithmetic circuits are implemented. This characteristic is applied to not only graphic processing but also general purpose like this proposed method. In order to employ it effectively, the calculation of the neural network learning are implemented to process simultaneously. The calculations which the neurons in the layer and many patterns are processed is parallelized. And we propose the parallelize method for calculation of back propagation. As the result, the proposed method is 25 times faster than the non-parallelized.
Preparing Children for Success

Many states are implementing asset development strategies to promote postsecondary education for low- to moderate-income families, realizing that limited education is a powerful predictor of poverty, and poverty mediates the likelihood of obtaining postsecondary education. Using demographic and qualitative data collected from two groups of low- to moderate-income parents (N = 24), this article highlights two programs that promote savings and increase post-secondary education for these children and families. The 21st Century Scholars Program targets youths, and the complementary Educational Development Accounts program targets their parents. This article also explores perspectives of the participants’ experiences, beliefs, and perceptions relative to savings and education and the success of their children in these areas. It concludes with implications for asset-building programs and policy whose aim is to assist low- to moderate-income families in achieving economic and educational mobility and implications for social welfare policy.
Hydrogenolysis of Glycerol over NiCeZr Catalyst Modified with Mg, Cu, and Sn at the Surface Level

Biomass valorization is an essential strategy for converting organic resources into valuable energy and chemicals, contributing to the circular economy, and reducing carbon footprints. Glycerol, a byproduct of biodiesel production, can be used as a feedstock for a variety of high-value products and can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint. This study examines the impact of surface-level modifications of Mg, Cu, and Sn on Ni-Ce-Zr catalysts for the hydrogenolysis of glycerol, with in situ generated hydrogen. The aim of this approach is to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of the biomass valorization process. However, the surface modification resulted in a decrease in the global conversion of glycerol due to the reduced availability of metal sites. The study found that valuable products, such as H2 and CH4 in the gas phase, and 1,2-PG in the liquid phase, were obtained. The majority of the liquid fraction was observed, particularly for Cu- and Sn-doped catalysts, which was attributed to their increased acidity. The primary selectivity was towards the cleavage of the C–O bond. Post-reaction characterizations revealed that the primary causes of deactivation was leaching, which was reduced by the inclusion of Cu and Sn. These findings demonstrate the potential of Cu- and Sn-modified Ni-Ce-Zr catalysts to provide a sustainable pathway for converting glycerol into value-added chemicals.
Optimization and scaling limit forecast of nitrided gate oxide using an equivalent nitride/oxide (N/O) stack model

A semi-empirical model was developed to calculate the equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) and leakage current of nitrided gate oxide by hypothetically dividing the nitrided oxide into a nitride/oxide (N/O) stack. The calculations agree well with the experimental data (R/sup 2/ > 0.99) for various nitrided oxides with EOT ranging from 12 to 23 /spl Aring/. A model-based strategy for the optimization of nitrided oxide is presented and demonstrated by a nitrided oxide sample which meets both the EOT and leakage current requirements of ITRS 65-nm low standby power (LSTP) technology and shows no electron mobility degradation. The model forecasts that a nitrogen concentration of 20% approximately the maximum from Oxide nitridation processes - satisfies the ITRS requirements for production until Year 2007. The production afterwards will require alternative dielectrics such as N/O stack or high-k materials for greater leakage current reductions.
Logic block clustering of large designs for channel-width constrained FPGAs

In this paper we present a system level technique for mapping large, multiple-IP-block designs to channel-width constrained FPGAs. Most FPGA clustering tools (Betz, 1999, Bozorgzadeh, 2004 and Singh, 2002) aim to reduce the amount of intercluster connections, hence reducing channel width needs. However, if this exceeds the FPGA's channel width (a hard constraint), then the circuit still cannot be routed. Previous work by Singh (2002) and Tessier (2000) depopulates logic clusters (CLBs) to reduce channel width. By depopulating non-uniformly, i.e. depopulate more in hard-to-route regions, we show a graceful trade-off between channel width and CLB count. This makes it possible to target specific channel-width constraints during clustering with minimal CLB inflation. Results show channel width decreases of up to 20% with a 5% increase in area. Further decreases of nearly 50% are possible at 3.3 times the original area. Despite the area increase, this technique creates routable solutions from otherwise unroutable circuits.
Integrated Multispeed Magnetic Gears: A Novel Approach to Design of Magnetic Transmission Systems

In this paper, a novel approach for the design of magnetic gears is proposed to provide various gear ratios per unit in a magnetic gear system, including a stator, a rotor, and steel segments. This design utilizes rod-shaped permanent magnets in the stator complex instead of arc-shaped permanent magnets used in ordinary magnetic gear systems. Interestingly, the number of pole pairs on a stator is varied only by rotating the rod-shaped magnets. The number of pole pairs on the rotor is kept constant. Therefore, the gear ratio is changed as a function of varying the number of pole pairs on stator. During changing the gear ratio, the number of the steel segments is changed with a specially designed configuration to maintain the maximum efficiency for the system. The concept and working principles of the proposed approach are presented. Simulation studies are employed to validate the performance of the system.
A switching anti-windup design using multiple Lyapunov functions

This paper proposes a switching anti-windup design, which aims to enlarge the domain of attraction of the closed-loop system. Multiple anti-windup gains along with an index function that orchestrates the switching among these anti-windup gains are designed based on the min function of multiple quadratic Lyapunov functions. In comparison with the design of a non-switching anti-windup gain which maximizes a contractively invariant level set of a single quadratic Lyapunov function as a way to increase the size of the domain of attraction, the use of multiple Lyapunov functions and switching in the proposed design allows the union of the level sets of the multiple Lyapunov functions, each of which is not necessarily contractively invariant, to be contractively invariant and within the domain of attraction. As a result, the resulting domain of attraction is expected to be significantly larger than the one resulting from a single anti-windup gain and a single Lyapunov function. Indeed, simulation results demonstrate such a significant improvement.
Nuclear transfer in cattle: Effect of nuclear donor cells, cytoplast age, co‐culture, and embryo transfer

There are many factors affecting the efficiency of nuclear transfer technology. Some are evaluated here using our novel approach by enucleating oocytes at 20–22 hr after in vitro maturation (IVM), culturing the enucleated oocytes (cytoplasts) for 8–10 hr or 18–20 hr to gain activation competence and then conducting nuclear transfer. In the first experiment, we demonstrated that cumulus cell (CC) monolayer can support some cloned embryos to develop into morulae or blastocysts. Co‐culture with CC and bovine oviduct epithelial cell (BOEC) monolayers resulted in no differences (P 0.05) in supporting the development of cloned embryos (Experiment 2). When in vitro matured oocytes were enucleated at 22 hr after IVM followed by nuclear transfer 18–20 hr later, cleavage and morula or blastocyst development of the cloned embryos were similar to those resulting from the enucleated oocytes which had been matured in vivo (Experiment 3). Frozen embryos as nuclear donor cells worked equally well as fresh embryos for cloning in embryo development which was superior to IVF embryos (Experiment 4). However, fresh embryos resulted in a higher proportion (P < 0.05) of blastomere recovery than did frozen or IVF ambryos. Finally, embryo transfer of cloned embryos from our procedure produced a viable calf, demonstrating the commercial value of this novel approach of the technology. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Development of a Microemulsion Formulation for Antimicrobial SecA Inhibitors

In our previous study, we have identified five antimicrobial small molecules via structure based design, which inhibit SecA of Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (Las). SecA is a critical protein translocase ATPase subunit and is involved in pre-protein translocation across and integration into the cellular membrane in bacteria. In this study, eleven compounds were identified using similarity search method based on the five lead SecA inhibitors identified previously. The identified SecA inhibitors have poor aqueous solubility. Thus a microemulsion master mix (MMX) was developed to address the solubility issue and for application of the antimicrobials. MMX consists of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone and dimethyl sulfoxide as solvent and co-solvent, as well as polyoxyethylated castor oil, polyalkylene glycol, and polyoxyethylene tridecyl ether phosphate as surfactants. MMX has significantly improved the solubility of SecA inhibitors and has no or little phytotoxic effects at concentrations less than 5.0% (v/v). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the SecA inhibitors and streptomycin against eight bacteria including Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Liberibacter crescens, Rhizobium etli, Bradyrhizobium japonicum, Mesorhizobium loti, and Sinorhizobium meliloti phylogenetically related to Las were determined using the broth microdilution method. MIC and MBC results showed that the 16 SecA inhibitors have antibacterial activities comparable to that of streptomycin. Overall, we have identified 11 potent SecA inhibitors using similarity search method. We have developed a microemulsion formulation for SecA inhibitors which improved the antimicrobial activities of SecA inhibitors.
Glucocorticoid-induced leucine zipper (GILZ)/NF-κB interaction: role of GILZ homo-dimerization and C-terminal domain

Glucocorticoid-induced leucine zipper (GILZ) is a 137 amino acid protein, rapidly induced by treatment with glucocorticoids (GC), characterized by a leucine zipper (LZ) domain (76–97 amino acids), an N-terminal domain (1–75 amino acids) and a C-terminal PER domain (98–137 amino acids) rich in proline and glutamic acid residues. We have previously shown that GILZ binds to and inhibits NF-κB activity. In the present study we used a number of mutants with the aim of defining the GILZ molecular domains responsible for GILZ/p65NF-κB interaction. Results, obtained by in vitro and in vivo co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) and by transcriptional activity experiments, indicate that GILZ homo-dimerization, through the LZ domain, as well as the C-terminal PER domain, particularly the 121–123 amino acids, are both necessary for GILZ interaction with NF-κB, inhibition of transcriptional activity and of IL-2 synthesis.
An Attempt at Face Detection on an SRC-6

Object detection is an important area of image processing. Specifically, face detection finds uses in image retrieval, surveillance, and many other applications. Because real-time processing may be desirable in some applications, it is useful to find fast algorithms and hardware that can perform this operation. One such algorithm for face detection that has proven to be fast is found in Intel’s Open Source Computer Vision Library (OpenCV) [1]. While the OpenCV face detection implementation works well, it still does not execute in real-time. In this work, we describe an attempt at implementing the same algorithm as used in OpenCV on an SRC-6 reconfigurable computer [2]. The SRC-6 MAP Series E processor is comprised of two FPGAs, which allows us to take advantage of parallelization and obtain increased performance from pipelined loops. These are two features commonly found in signal processing designs, so it was expected that this algorithm would execute faster on SRC-6. In the end, we found however that due to limitations on FPGA resources and the algorithm structure, the desired speedup was not achieved. However, this work has led to a better understanding of the algorithm structure and types of codes that work well on SRC-6.
Differences in brain circuitry for appetitive and reactive aggression as revealed by realistic auditory scripts

Aggressive behavior is thought to divide into two motivational elements: The first being a self-defensively motivated aggression against threat and a second, hedonically motivated “appetitive” aggression. Appetitive aggression is the less understood of the two, often only researched within abnormal psychology. Our approach is to understand it as a universal and adaptive response, and examine the functional neural activity of ordinary men (N = 50) presented with an imaginative listening task involving a murderer describing a kill. We manipulated motivational context in a between-subjects design to evoke appetitive or reactive aggression, against a neutral control, measuring activity with Magnetoencephalography (MEG). Results show differences in left frontal regions in delta (2–5 Hz) and alpha band (8–12 Hz) for aggressive conditions and right parietal delta activity differentiating appetitive and reactive aggression. These results validate the distinction of reward-driven appetitive aggression from reactive aggression in ordinary populations at the level of functional neural brain circuitry.
Using association rules to add or eliminate query constraints automatically

Much interesting work has been done on the use of semantic associations for optimizing query execution. Our objective is to study the use of association rules to add or eliminate constraints in the where clause of a select query. In particular, we take advantage of the following heuristics presented by Siegel et al. (1992): i) if a selection on attribute A is implied by another selection condition on attribute B and A is not an index attribute, then the selection on A can be removed from the query; ii) if a relation R in the query has a restricted attribute A and an unrestricted cluster index attribute B, then look for a rule where the restriction on A implies a restriction on B. The contribution of our work is twofold. First, we present detailed algorithms that apply these heuristics. Hence, our ideas are easy to implement. Second we discuss conditions under which it is worth applying these optimization techniques, and we show the extent to which they speed up query execution.
Gene Expression Profiling Following Maternal Deprivation: Involvement of the Brain Renin-Angiotensin System

The postnatal development of the mouse is characterized by a stress hypo-responsive period (SHRP), where basal corticosterone levels are low and responsiveness to mild stressors is reduced. Maternal separation is able to disrupt the SHRP and is widely used to model early trauma. In this study we aimed at identifying of brain systems involved in acute and possible long-term effects of maternal separation. We conducted a microarray-based gene expression analysis in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus after maternal separation, which revealed 52 differentially regulated genes compared to undisturbed controls, among them are 37 up-regulated and 15 down-regulated genes. One of the prominently up-regulated genes, angiotensinogen, was validated using in-situ hybridization. Angiotensinogen is the precursor of angiotensin II, the main effector of the brain renin-angiotensin system (RAS), which is known to be involved in stress system modulation in adult animals. Using the selective angiotensin type I receptor [AT(1)] antagonist candesartan we found strong effects on CRH and GR mRNA expression in the brain and ACTH release following maternal separation. AT(1) receptor blockade appears to enhance central effects of maternal separation in the neonate, suggesting a suppressing function of brain RAS during the SHRP. Taken together, our results illustrate the molecular adaptations that occur in the paraventricular nucleus following maternal separation and contribute to identifying signaling cascades that control stress system activity in the neonate.
Clinical and Patient-Related Variables Associated with Initiating GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Therapy in Type 2 Diabetes Patients in Primary Care in Germany

Aims To investigate real-world clinical and patient-related variables associated with initiating GLP-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) treatment relative to initiation of other glucose-lowering therapies in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients of primary care in Germany. Methods Data for 938 T2D patients who started therapy with a GLP-1RA within 823 practices of primary care throughout Germany were retrospectively analyzed (Disease Analyser: 01/2011–03/2014). 5,197 T2D patients who initiated other non-GLP-1RA antidiabetic therapies were selected as controls. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were applied to identify factors associated with GLP-1RA initiation in primary care. Results Mean age (SD) of GLP-1RA users was 57.8 (11.8) years (males: 55.5%) and the average BMI was 36.1 (6.7) kg/m2. 22.8% were in diabetologist care and 12.0% had private health insurance. In multivariate regression, choice of GLP-1RA therapy instead of a different glucose-lowering drug class was associated with obesity (odds ratio: 1.68; 95% CI: 1.34–2.10), private health insurance (2.42; 1.89–3.09), younger age (0.94; 0.93–0.95 per year), male sex (0.85; 0.73–0.99), diabetologist care (2.11; 1.73–2.57), and geographic practice location (East vs. West-Germany; 1.25; 1.05–1.49). Among co-medication, angiotensin II antagonists (increased) and non-steroidal antirheumatic agents (decreased) were related to GLP-1RA prescriptions (both p<0.001). Conclusions Consistent with German guidelines, GLP-1RA is mainly prescribed preferentially in T2D patients who are obese. GLP-1RA drugs were more frequently used than other options in privately health insured patients and in patients seeing a diabetologist.