Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Online monitoring of chemical reactions by contactless atmospheric pressure ionization mass spectrometry.

Online monitoring of the appearance of the intermediates and products during chemical reactions is helpful to understand reaction mechanisms. Various analytical tools including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS) have been employed for the study. MS is one of the most promising means among analytical tools that can provide information of mass-to-charge ratios for intermediates and products generated from chemical reactions. The main challenge for online monitoring of species generated from chemical reactions by MS is the interface design. The success of online monitoring of chemical reactions using MS relies on real-time recording of the generated species from reactions without sacrificing kinetic information during coupling. In addition, MS can only detect gas-phase ions. Nevertheless, most chemical reactions occur in liquid phase. Thus, generating gas-phase ions from liquid samples is vital for the success of this study. Electrospray ionization (ESI) is one of the most common atmospheric pressure ionization (API) methods that generate gas-phase ions from liquid-reacting species/products in the proximity of a mass spectrometer for online monitoring of chemical reactions. In addition, some recently developed ambient ionization methods such as desorption ESI, extractive ESI, electrospray desorption ionization, fused droplet ESI, low-temperature plasma probe for ambient desorption ionization and ultrasonication-assisted spray ionization [27] also have shown their usefulness in monitoring reactions in real time. High-voltage electric power supply, gas supply, or laser is generally required for these approaches. High-voltage free approaches such as Venturi easy ambient sonic-spray ionization with gas supply only have been used to online monitoring of organic reactions. A comprehensive description about the progress using MS to monitor chemical reactions can refer to the recently published book written by Santos. Some of these techniques may be suitable for monitoring fast reactions that take place during desorption/ionization process. However, our current study is focused on using a recently developed API technique for monitoring the changes of reacting species from an organic reaction requiring a long reaction time to reach the end of the reaction. A continuous-flow API method was recently explored, called contactless API (C-API), which uses a short tapered-capillary tip (~ 1 cm) as the spray emitter for the generation of gas-phase ions from a liquid solution. High-voltage electric power supply, gas supply and laser are not required for the C-API approach. The C-API approach only requires a tapered capillary for the generation of gas-phase ions in the proximity of MS (Fig. 1). The sample solution can flow continuously from the sample inlet
LMSD: LIPID MAPS structure database

The LIPID MAPS Structure Database (LMSD) is a relational database encompassing structures and annotations of biologically relevant lipids. Structures of lipids in the database come from four sources: (i) LIPID MAPS Consortium's core laboratories and partners; (ii) lipids identified by LIPID MAPS experiments; (iii) computationally generated structures for appropriate lipid classes; (iv) biologically relevant lipids manually curated from LIPID BANK, LIPIDAT and other public sources. All the lipid structures in LMSD are drawn in a consistent fashion. In addition to a classification-based retrieval of lipids, users can search LMSD using either text-based or structure-based search options. The text-based search implementation supports data retrieval by any combination of these data fields: LIPID MAPS ID, systematic or common name, mass, formula, category, main class, and subclass data fields. The structure-based search, in conjunction with optional data fields, provides the capability to perform a substructure search or exact match for the structure drawn by the user. Search results, in addition to structure and annotations, also include relevant links to external databases. The LMSD is publicly available at
ToxoDB: an integrated Toxoplasma gondii database resource

ToxoDB (http://ToxoDB.org) is a genome and functional genomic database for the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. It incorporates the sequence and annotation of the T. gondii ME49 strain, as well as genome sequences for the GT1, VEG and RH (Chr Ia, Chr Ib) strains. Sequence information is integrated with various other genomic-scale data, including community annotation, ESTs, gene expression and proteomics data. ToxoDB has matured significantly since its initial release. Here we outline the numerous updates with respect to the data and increased functionality available on the website.
Draft Genome Sequence of Mycobacterium asiaticum Strain DSM 44297

ABSTRACT We report the draft genome sequence of Mycobacterium asiaticum strain DSM 44297, a tropical mycobacterium seldom responsible for human infection. The genome of M. asiaticum has a size of 5,935,986 bp, with a 66.03% G+C content, encoding 5,591 proteins and 81 RNAs.
Reducing the Number of Higher-Order Mutants with the Aid of Data Flow

Higher-order mutants are created by injecting two or more mutations into the original program, while first-order mutants are generated by seeding single faults in the original program. Mutant generation is a key stage of mutation testing which is computationally very expensive, especially in the case of higher-order mutants. Although many mutation testing techniques have been developed to construct the first-order mutants, a very small number of techniques have been presented to generate the higher-order mutants because of the exponential growth of the number of higher-order mutants, and the coupling effect between higher-order and first-order mutants. To overcome the exponential explosion in the number of higher-order mutants considered, this paper introduces a new technique for generating a reduced set of higher-order mutants. The proposed technique utilizes a data-flow analysis to decrease the number of mutation points through the program under test and consequently reduce the number of higher-order mutants. In this technique only positions of defs and uses are considered as locations to seed the mutation. The generated set of higher-order mutants consists of a reduced number of mutants, which reduces the costs of higher-order mutation testing. In addition, the proposed technique can generate the higher-order mutants directly without generating the first-order mutants or by combining two or more first-order mutants. A set of experiments are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed technique. The results of the conducted experiments are presented and compared with the results of the related work. These results showed that the proposed technique is more effective than the earlier techniques in generating higher-order mutants without affecting the efficiency of mutation testing.
‘It's just like we're going around in circles and going back to the same thing …’: The Dynamics of Women's Unresolved Homelessness

The condition of long-term homelessness has been demonstrated to affect a far smaller number of individuals compared with those who exit and become housed. It is nonetheless a pressing policy concern because of the high social and economic costs associated with prolonged homelessness. As with much homelessness research generally, gender is not adequately addressed, and frequently ignored, within analyses of ‘long-term’ or ‘chronic’ homelessness. This paper seeks to redress this imbalance and examines the experiences of women who have lengthy homeless histories based on the accounts of 34 women who are participants in a larger biographical study of homeless women in Ireland. Women's movements into and out of homeless service settings are examined in some detail, as are their accounts of the lived experience of prolonged homelessness. Their narratives reveal their mothering roles and identities, intimate relationships and intimate partner violence, and their ongoing interactions with institutional settings, including homeless hostels, as key dynamics influencing their movements and the strategies used by them as they attempt to manage their homelessness. We conclude by highlighting several gender-specific forces driving the women's experiences of unresolved homelessness. A number of key messages for policy are also discussed.
Contour-based Hand Pose Recognition for Sign Language Recognition

We are developing a real-time Japanese sign language recognition system that employs abstract hand motions based on three elements familiar to sign language: hand motion, position, and pose. This study considers the method of hand pose recognition using depth images obtained from the Kinect v2 sensor. We apply the contour-based method proposed by Keogh to hand pose recognition. This method recognizes a contour by means of discriminators generated from contours. We conducted experiments on recognizing 23 hand poses from 400 Japanese sign language words. Index Terms: hand pose, contour, sign language recognition, real-time, Kinect
Statebuilding in Afghanistan: a contradictory engagement

This article lays out a critical perspective on statebuilding in Afghanistan after 2001, arguing that the massive international intervention had inherent contradictions which undermined the prospect of creating an Afghan-owned, liberal new order. Tensions related to the rentier-state condition, local ownership versus international control, and building peace while waging war are examined in detail. It follows from this analysis that the scaling-back of the international presence, now in process, is a necessary precondition for more accountable, autonomous, and sustainable statebuilding. The transition itself may be violent, with intensified competition for power and over new sources of rent. Yet it opens up new space for the Afghans themselves to re-establish a functioning and legitimate state, based on long-term bargains between elites and subjects and a measure of compromise among contesting ethnic and sectarian groups.
Differential difference current conveyor based cascadable voltage mode first order all pass filters

This paper proposes two first-order all-pass filters using DDCCs as active elements, one resistor and one capacitor. Both proposed filters have two DDCCs, one grounded resistor and one grounded capacitor. Thus the two topologies are having minimum number of components and there is no need for matching constraints on passive components. The performance of the proposed circuits is examined using PSPICE simulations with the model parameters of a 0.5 8m CMOS process. Obtained results demonstrate excellent agreement with theoretical values.
Cylindrical Approximation of Tubular Organs for Virtual Endoscopy

Virtual endoscopy is a promising medical application of volume visualization techniques. A virtual endoscopy system requires high quality and perspective projection rendering, as well as real-time navigation. In this paper the generation of a cylindrical structure for tubular shaped organs (i.e. colon, aorta) is presented. This structure represents an approximation of the real organ. The cylindrical structure will be used to accelerate high quality volume rendering.
X-CleLo: Intelligent Deterministic RFID Data Transformer

Recently, passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems have received an exponential amount of attention as researchers have worked tirelessly to implement a stable and reliable system. Unfortunately, despite vast improvements in the quality of RFID technology, a significant amount of erroneous data is still captured in the system. Currently, the problems associated with RFID have been addressed by cleaning algorithms to enhance the data quality. In this paper, we present X-CleLo, a means to intelligently clean and enhance the dirty data using Clausal Defeasible Logic. The extensive experimental study we have conducted has shown that the X-CleLo method has several advantages against a currently utilised cleaning technique and achieves a higher cleaning rate.
Visual steering of UAV in unknown environments

In this paper, we propose a novel approach for the visual navigation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). In contrast to most available methods, a single perspective camera is used to estimate the complete set of 3D motion parameters undergone by the UAV. We establish robust point correspondences between consecutive image frames captured by the flying vehicle. Based on the estimated motion parameters as well as the reconstructed relative scene depth, a visual steering algorithm has been realized so that the UAV is capable of avoiding obstacles during navigation. The advantage of our approach lies in the fact that decision for collision avoidance is made immediately, by using purely visual information extracted from the live video sequence. Furthermore, it eliminates the time-consuming steps of explicit obstacle recognition and global reconstruction of the environment. Experimental evaluation has been carried out based on computer simulation as well as using a commercially available flying drone. It has been shown that the UAV is capable of autonomous navigation in unknown environments with arbitrary configuration of obstacles.
[POSTER] Manipulating Haptic Shape Perception by Visual Surface Deformation and Finger Displacement in Spatial Augmented Reality

Many researchers are trying to realize a pseudo-haptic system which can visually manipulate a user's haptic shape perception when touching a physical object. In this paper, we focus on manipulating the perceived surface shape of a curved object when touching it with an index finger, by visually deforming it's surface shape and displacing the visual representation of the user's index finger as like s/he is touching the deformed surface, using spatial augmented reality. Experiments were conducted with a projection system to confirm the effect of the visual feedback for manipulating the perceived shape of curved surface. The results supported the proposed concept.
Hypothermia Suppresses Excitatory Synaptic Transmission and Neuronal Death Induced by Experimental Ischemia in Spinal Ventral Horn Neurons

Study Design. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings were performed from the ventral horn neurons obtained from the rat spinal cord slices. Objective. This study investigated the effects of hypothermia on excitatory synaptic transmission and ischemia-induced neuronal death. Summary of Background Data. Hypothermia has long been recognized as a promising physical strategy against both ischemic and traumatic spinal cord injuries. However, the mechanism of hypothermia-mediated neuroprotective action in the spinal cord is still not fully understood at the single cell level. Methods. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings were performed from ventral horn neurons obtained from the spinal cord slices. Ischemia was simulated by superfusing an oxygen- and glucose-deprived medium [ischemia simulating medium (ISM)]. Results. When the temperature of the superfusing artificial cerebrospinal fluid solution was changed from normothermia (36°C) to hypothermia (32°C, 28°C, and 24°C), the frequency of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents was significantly decreased in a temperature-dependent manner. Surperfusing the ISM generated an agonal inward current which consisted of a slow and subsequent rapid inward current in all of the neurons tested. The latencies of the slow and rapid inward currents after the ISM exposures were significantly longer at hypothermia than at normothermia. Hypothermia decreased the slope of the ISM-induced slow inward current, although it did not affect the slope of the rapid inward current. Moreover, the glutamate receptor antagonists slightly prolonged the latencies of the slow and rapid inward currents that were induced by ISM and significantly decreased their slopes. Conclusion. These results suggest that hypothermia reduces the excitatory synaptic activities and ischemic neuronal death in the spinal ventral horn. This finding may help in achieving a better understanding of the mechanisms of hypothermia-mediated neuroprotection in the spinal cord.
Preferences for collaborative and individual everyday problem solving in later adulthood

Individual and contextual predictors of preferences for solving everyday problems alone and in collaboration with others were investigated in a sample community-dwelling older adults (M age = 71.80 years, SD = 5.78, range = 56–87, 51 men, 56 women). Gender differences in problem-solving preferences were found in gender-stereotyped domains (e.g., meal-preparation; house repair). In several problem domains, more positive social comparisons of problem-solving ability were related to greater preferences for solving problems alone and lesser preferences for solving problems with others. Marital status, temporal comparisons of ability, and perceived health and control were related to problem-solving preferences in some problem domains. Results are discussed from a contextual perspective that focuses on the fit between individuals’ personal and social resources and their preferred approaches to solving everyday problems.
Tunneling dynamics in CdTe/(Cd,Zn)Te asymmetric double-quantum-well structures.

Carrier tunneling through (Cd,Zn)Te barriers of different thicknesses is investigated in CdTe/(Cd,Zn)Te asymmetric double quantum wells by use of time-resolved photoluminescence and steady-state photoluminescence excitation experiments. The strong dependence of the observed tunneling times on the barrier thickness indicates a resonant tunneling behavior. The analysis of our results allows us to identify the importance of excitons rather than free-carrier states for the tunneling mechanism
Misalignment-Robust Face Recognition

Subspace learning techniques for face recognition have been widely studied in the past three decades. In this paper, we study the problem of general subspace-based face recognition under the scenarios with spatial misalignments and/or image occlusions. For a given subspace derived from training data in a supervised, unsupervised, or semi-supervised manner, the embedding of a new datum and its underlying spatial misalignment parameters are simultaneously inferred by solving a constrained ¿1 norm optimization problem, which minimizes the ¿1 error between the misalignment-amended image and the image reconstructed from the given subspace along with its principal complementary subspace. A byproduct of this formulation is the capability to detect the underlying image occlusions. Extensive experiments on spatial misalignment estimation, image occlusion detection, and face recognition with spatial misalignments and/or image occlusions all validate the effectiveness of our proposed general formulation for misalignment-robust face recognition.
The Role of State, Non-State Actors and Information Communication Technologies in Peace-Building in Mt. Elgon Region, Kenya

Intra-state conflicts in the African continent pose a threat to stability and security of the region. The conflict pitting Soy and Ndorobo clans in Mt. Elgon erupted when members of the Soy clan rejected an attempt by the government of Kenya (GoK) to resettle the landless members of the Ndorobo in Chebyuk settlement scheme. The conflict had great socio-economic impacts like loss of lives, massive destruction of property, population displacement and feelings of hatred and animosity amongst the residents. While there is a plethora of literature on causes and effects of intra-ethnic conflicts in Kenya, there is a dearth on peace-building endeavours and the potential of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in conflict resolutions. This study was designed to assess the potential role of state, non-state actors and ICTs in peace-building. The study was based on the conflict transformation theory and diffusion of innovations theory. This qualitative study used in-depth interviews using local inhabitants, state and non-state actors purposively sampled. Data were analysed based on the interpretive approach. The results show that ICTs such as mobile telephones, the Internet and radio-phones had a great potential in peace-building but were seldom (20%) employed. The paper contributes to the on-going dialogue on peace building efforts in Mt. Elgon and other regions experiencing similar conflicts and recommends more use of ICTs in peace-building efforts than was the case in this study. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014. v5n3p358
Children's Talk and the Development of Reasoning in the Classroom

Abstract Sixty British primary school children aged 9‐10 and their teachers took part in an experimental teaching programme, designed to improve the quality of children's reasoning and collaborative activity by developing their awareness of language use and promoting certain ‘ground rules’ for talking together. Children's subsequent use of language when carrying out collaborative activities in the classroom was observed and analysed, and effects on their performance on Raven's Progressive Matrices test of non‐verbal reasoning were also investigated. Comparative data were gathered from children in matched control classes. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of discourse showed a marked shift in target children's use of language in accord with the aims of the teaching programme, and demonstrated that adherence to the ground rules helped groups solve the reasoning test problems. Children's individual scores on the Raven's test also improved. These findings support a sociocultural view of intellectual devel.
Discrete Asymptotic Abstractions of Hybrid Systems

In this paper we introduce the notion of finite time mode abstraction to relate a hybrid automaton to a timed automaton that preserves the stability and reachability properties of the former. The abstraction procedure discards the continuous dynamics of each mode in the hybrid automaton completely, keeping only the information about the maximum time in which the continuous state makes a discrete jump. This information is used to construct a timed automaton, based on the original hybrid automaton, and to prove that the stability and reachability properties of the original system are retained in the abstract timed automaton. In the process of abstracting a hybrid to a timed automaton we introduce a new notion of hybrid distance metric, which provides information about both the number of discrete transitions that a system would have to make to go from one hybrid state to another, and the distance between the continuous parts of such hybrid states
Limitlessness in Australian Constitutional Legal Narrative: The memory of Black's Address in the Tasmanian Dam Case

Given that clashes of federalism and the interpretation of powers are often the predominant themes in Australian constitutional culture, an especially intriguing element in the address of Michael Black QC, representing the Tasmanian Wilderness Society, in the High Court Tasmanian Dam case is the idea that there was something evocative and poetic that was said in a constitutional setting. This article does not replicate Black's legal argument directly or in its entirety, but instead gives a close examination of the text, with a view to engaging with the performance, or the spirit and the emotion, that pervades the address and evokes a concept of limitlessness in connections between self and nature. In reading Black's address, the purpose of this article is to re-create and expand on three deliberate steps contained within the oratory, which lead to this experience of limitlessness.